Restructuring the Commercial Strip

Transcription

RESTRUCTURING THE
COMMERCIAL STRIP
A Practical Guide for Planning the
Revitalization of Deteriorating Strip Corridors
Prepared for the
United States Environmental Protection Agency
Under Work Assignment 3-28:
DEVELOPMENT OF A NATIONALLY REPLICABLE APPROACH TO
SMART GROWTH CORRIDOR REDEVELOPMENT
By
ICF International
&
Freedman Tung & Sasaki
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.
THE COMMERCIAL STRIP IN TRANSITION
1
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
The Advent, Reign, and Dissolution of the Strip
The Advent and Mass Production of the Strip
Forces of Change Undermining the Strip
Revitalization by Restructuring the Strip
1
2
5
8
2.
ORCHESTRATING REVITALIZATION: THE CORRIDOR
RESTRUCTURING STRATEGY
9
RESTRUCTURING LAND USE AND DEVELOPMENT ALONG
THE STRIP
9
2.1
2.1.1 Reorganize Retail from Linear to Nodal
2.1.2 Create Real Centers
2.1.3 Restore Value and Prominence to Segments
9
14
20
2.2
26
RESTRUCTURING THE RIGHT-OF-WAY
2.2.1 Design to Promote and Support New Development
2.2.2 Coordinate Public and Private Investment to Enhance Mobility
and Access
26
3.
IMPLEMENTING CORRIDOR RESTRUCTURING
37
3.1
BARRIERS AND SOLUTIONS
37
3.1.1
3.1.2
3.1.3
3.1.4
The Difficulty in Envisioning Success
Stakeholder Oppostion to Change
Varied Potential for Change in the Corridor
Streamlining Public and Private Investments
37
37
38
39
3.2
MANAGING THE CORRIDOR PLANNING PROCESS
39
34
3.2.1 The Critical Role of Government
3.2.2 Managing Interdepartmental and Interdisciplinary Collaboration
3.2.3 Orchestrating Community Participation
40
41
41
3.3
THE “FORM-BASED” DEVELOPMENT CODE
42
3.3.1
3.3.2
3.3.3
3.3.4
Development Code Organization
The Regulating Plan
Regulating Physical Characteristics for Private Development
Orienting Users and Administrators to the Code
42
44
45
46
3.4
THE RESTRUCTURING PLAN DOCUMENT
47
3.4.1 The Community Vision for a Restructured Corridor
3.4.2 Development Regulations
3.4.3 Municipality Actions
47
47
47
4.
49
CONCLUSION
APPENDIX – The Existing Conditions Inventory
51
PREFACE
Commercial strip corridors are a common sight in American towns and cities. They typically
connect downtowns with outer neighborhoods, but are also prevalent in suburban locations—
often as the only connection between neighborhoods and destinations such as office parks and
shopping malls. In the last 50 years, commercial strip corridors have accounted for a substantial
amount of retail and development activity in the United States, but in many communities,
commercial strip corridors are aging and many of them are losing their attractiveness as
development locations. These locations are experiencing disinvestment, resulting in vacant,
abandoned, and underused property, such as abandoned gas stations, and obsolete retail strip
centers. But despite disinvestment, these corridors remain key parts of regional transportation
networks and are often well positioned for reuse and redevelopment because of the high volumes
of traffic that they continue to experience.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Smart Growth Program commissioned this
document to provide communities with guidance on how they can revitalize these commercial
corridors to accommodate economic growth, reuse land already serviced by existing
infrastructure, and reflect the unique character of the town or city where they are located. In
addition, revitalization achieves positive environmental outcomes. Revitalization of commercial
strips into multimodal corridors encourages the clean-up and reuse of contaminated properties,
helping to protect regional water quality by reducing the amount of paved surfaces in a
watershed and by allowing natural lands to filter rainwater and runoff before it reaches drinkingwater supplies. Furthermore, air quality benefits are achieved when the roadway itself is
redesigned to accommodate walking, biking, and transit and abutting properties are redesigned as
compact, mixed-use neighborhoods that further support alternatives to driving. Increasing
transportation choices can reduce air pollution by reducing the amount people need to drive to
get to everyday destinations and thus reducing harmful emissions.
Comprehensive corridor redevelopment requires careful attention to both sides of the corridor’s
right-of-way line. The land use pattern and the thoroughfare design should be planned together
and reinforce each other. For properties lining the corridor, revitalization requires a restructuring
of land use and development patterns. A change from auto-oriented to multimodal transportation
through and near the corridor can help guide and focus redevelopment, which in turn will
enhance mobility through the corridor. Orchestrating corridor redevelopment also requires
leadership by local government. Commercial strips are composed of hundreds or even thousands
of separate parcels—far too many individually owned properties for any single property owner
or developer to substantially influence. Also, with the future of a prominent part of the
neighborhood at issue, stakeholder and resident involvement in the re-planning process will be
critical to making sure the revitalization meets local needs, to political acceptance, and to
implementation. The local government’s overarching goal is to provide a credible and reliable
development context within which private and public dollars will be invested to create a different
type of corridor, from which residents, business owners, the municipality, and other stakeholders
can once again derive value.
i
Coordinating public infrastructure investments with land use planning and private development
activity along corridors is a focus of EPA’s Smart Growth program. Since 2005, the Smart
Growth Program has conducted a Smart Growth Implementation Assistance (SGIA) Program,
which solicits applications from communities that need help resolving a development-related
challenge. Many of the applications that the SGIA program receives each year deal with a
corridor-related challenge, showing a clear need for more resources to help communities revive
and support their commercial corridors.
From 2005 to 2010, EPA assisted five communities dealing with corridor development and
redevelopment issues. Descriptions of each community follow, and the reports, which contain
helpful policy and design options and extensive resources, are available at
http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/sgia_communities.htm. In McCall, Idaho, EPA’s assistance
gave the city options for addressing concerns over potential future development impacts of a
newly established roadway. Assistance to Taos, New Mexico, and College Park, Maryland,
focused on redevelopment of specific, existing corridors. Denver, Colorado, was exploring a
city- and county-wide strategy for retrofitting all large commercial corridors. In Las Cruces, New
Mexico, assistance is being provided (as of spring 2010) to develop a public engagement
program for re-envisioning a major commercial corridor that includes environmental justice and
equitable development issues important to surrounding neighborhoods.
McCall, Idaho (2005)
McCall, Idaho, is becoming a popular destination for homebuyers because of its scenic beauty.
Between 2000 and 2005, the population of McCall increased 41 percent. The opening of
Tamarack, a ski resort just 15 miles south of McCall, also fueled real estate demand. Alongside
this growth, the city had recently opened the East-West Loop Road with hopes of reducing
downtown congestion and giving truck traffic the option to avoid the pedestrian-friendly
downtown. Because the new road provided access to the state highway, and given the intensity
of the growth, the city anticipated that there would be considerable development pressures along
the Loop road. The city was concerned that this pressure could create development that was
inconsistent with McCall’s character and that could cause congestion on the newly built road.
To address these concerns, the city requested assistance from the SGIA Program to develop
options for responding to growth along the new East-West Loop Road that would meet
community goals. EPA assembled a team of experts to work with city officials, local leaders,
community representatives, and others to create a vision for the development at two sites along
the road. As part of those meetings and consultations, the team developed:
• Concept plans illustrating approaches that would maintain the character of McCall;
provide housing opportunities so that those who work in McCall can live in McCall;
make connections to downtown; and take advantage of economic opportunities and the
strength of the market.
• Implementation options that included an amendment to the comprehensive plan and
zoning map and entering into development agreements during permit applications and/or
re-zonings.
Following the release of the report, community leaders decided to adopt designs created during
the on-site workshop into their comprehensive plan.
ii
Taos, New Mexico (2005)
New Mexico State Highway 68, also known as the Paseo del Pueblo Sur commercial corridor,
cuts through the center of Taos, leading traffic to the Taos Historic District, museums, and many
other destinations in the area. It carries an average daily traffic volume of roughly 23,000
vehicles. Much of the streetscape leading to the historic downtown has strip commercial
development and underused parking lots with little or no landscaping. Residents felt that this
style of development along the highway did not fit with Taos’ unique historic character.
The town of Taos requested EPA assistance to help make development along the Paseo del
Pueblo Sur commercial corridor stronger economically and more attractive. Through meetings
with residents, town staff and officials, property owners, and others, a vision for the corridor
emerged. In particular, residents wanted to preserve Taos’ unique character and to receive
specific implementation steps toward their vision. Based on the community's goals, the EPA-led
team developed a number of options the town could consider to transform both the feel and the
function of the corridor, including:
• Better managing traffic through a combination of strategies, including alternate routes in
a connected street network, access management, transportation demand management,
better pedestrian and bicycle facilities, better public transit, and more efficient parking
management;
• Establishing a distinct character for sections of the Paseo through street design, which
also makes the road safer and more pleasant for drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists; and
• Making the Paseo a community center by creating nodes of activity, mixing land uses
along the corridor, and using building and site design that reinforces Taos' unique sense
of place.
The town planned to use the EPA team's report to work with the New Mexico Department of
Transportation on its scheduled redesign of part of the Paseo, to formalize neighborhood
associations, to develop a green infrastructure plan, and to complete its Land Use Master Plan. In
the meantime, the town has used the report to educate the community about growth and
development issues.
College Park, Maryland (2006)
The city and residents of College Park had a vision of the U.S. Route 1 corridor leading into
College Park and the University of Maryland as a great street and welcoming gateway. In
response, the 2002 Sector Plan envisioned a community Main Street with shops, homes, and
offices mixed together to create a vibrant backbone to the city of College Park. However, after
four years of implementation, the vision was not being realized. The tools that were established
in the Sector Plan were not producing the results that residents expected while development
continued to occur.
As part of its response to this realization, the city of College Park requested assistance through
the SGIA Program to understand the disconnect between the vision for the U.S. Route 1 corridor
and the development that was occurring and to get the tools to achieve the vision. The EPA-led
team identified best practices from around the country, collected and analyzed local data, and
worked with local partners to develop options for the city and county to consider. The team’s
proposed options included:
iii
•
•
•
•
Locate retail in specific nodes and create a form-based development code to help get the
development the city wanted.
Design U.S. Route 1 to be a pedestrian-welcoming, retail-active boulevard that supports
the desired “Main Street” function at specific nodes.
Implement a comprehensive transportation demand management plan that meets travel
demand through a complete set of travel choices and takes advantage of the shorter travel
distances produced by the land use changes.
Create a collaborative development review process to provide predictability, certainty,
and flexibility; fairness to developers, residents, property owners, and business owners;
economic feasibility; and respect for neighborhood values.
In the months following the report's approval, the city of College Park implemented two of the
key options outlined in the report: preparing a form-based code to better direct the
redevelopment of the commercial corridor and undertaking a transportation demand management
study to identify appropriate measures for reducing traffic congestion, including the feasibility of
a Route 1 trolley.
Denver, Colorado (2008)
The city of Denver is growing. During the last few decades, the regional economy has expanded,
bringing new jobs, residents, and a positive civic identity. City leaders believe that the next
frontier for growth in Denver region is the retrofitting of commercial and business corridors. In
response, the city launched the Living Streets Initiative in 2008. This initiative is a multijurisdictional effort to shape future street investments and policies and transform existing
commercial corridors in pedestrian-oriented, multimodal streets that can support a dense, vibrant
mix of shops, offices, and residences.
With the EPA team, the city sponsored a four-day, public, living streets workshop in 2008. The
workshop illustrated how living streets concepts could be applied in Denver and identified
implementation strategies to advance the city’s Living Streets Initiative. The workshop focused
on the “Fulcrum” portion of the Downtown-Cherry Creek corridor. The team’s report presented
principles and design strategies to implement living streets along commercial corridors in the
city and region:
• Reduce the number of lanes dedicated to cars.
• Create a pedestrian- and transit-friendly streetscape.
• Relate development to the street.
• Identify policy actions that can support living streets in Denver.
Since the workshop, the city completed a market opportunity study that found overwhelming
evidence that economic vitality is enhanced through investment in pedestrian, bicycle, and transit
infrastructure and related amenities. The city also hosted five educational events for policymakers and professionals featuring national experts on the themes of policy and politics,
engineering and design, public health, economic development, and finance and implementation.
Finally, the city hosted five workshops in different neighborhoods to engage the public on the
potential benefits and tradeoffs of living streets and receive input and feedback.
iv
Las Cruces, New Mexico (2009)
The El Paseo corridor is a 1.7-mile corridor that extends southeast from Main Street in
downtown Las Cruces to the New Mexico State University campus. El Paseo is an active mixeduse corridor with a diverse population. Physically, the corridor is characterized by viable
businesses and institutions that provide a variety of goods and services to the community.
Adjacent to the avenue are middle- to lower-income neighborhoods, a local high school, a senior
center, and other community services. The corridor is also home to some of the highest
commercial vacancy rates in the city. The design is auto-oriented and is dominated by strip malls
separated from the street by large parking lots. These design factors, combined with heavy
automobile traffic, make the area unpleasant and dangerous to pedestrians.
The city of Las Cruces is committed to developing a robust public participation model that
includes a deliberative planning and visioning process applicable not only to the corridor, but to
other areas of the city that share similar demographics. To that end, in 2009 the city sought
assistance from the SGIA Program to develop a model for outreach and public participation that
uses multiple, non-traditional techniques to engage and build collaborations among the
government, residents, and stakeholders. The city intends to use these techniques to develop a
community-driven vision for the El Paseo corridor and to help with the larger regional
comprehensive planning process currently being developed (Vision 2040). The community
developed the following project goals:
• Identify strategic policies and regulatory tools in support of new and/or revised street
standards and land uses that support fair choices in housing, mobility, and commercial
activity.
• Demonstrate the potential application of public participation tools to fair redevelopment
efforts in the El Paseo Corridor Area.
• Develop options for how a public participation strategy or toolkit could be applied to the
Vision 2040 efforts.
• Develop a model for public participation that uses multiple and non-traditional
techniques to engage and build collaborations among government leaders, residents, and
stakeholders.
The U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development are joining EPA in the Las Cruces project as part of the Partnership for Sustainable
Communities that the three agencies established in 2009. As of spring 2010, the three federal
agencies are working closely with staff from the city, the metropolitan planning organization,
and community stakeholders in planning a series of public involvement activities to be held in
the summer and fall of 2010. Events being planned include pedestrian audits, a design
visualization charrette, green infrastructure workshops, and stakeholder meetings focused on
identifying municipal tools to encourage fair and equitable redevelopment of vacant and
underused parcels along the El Paseo Corridor.
Through working with these communities, EPA discovered the need for a guidebook that help
lay out steps communities can follow to revitalize their commercial corridors. This publication is
intended to help fill that gap and to give communities a new resource to help them bring their
underused, aging corridors back to environmental sustainability and economic and social
vibrancy.
v
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vi
1.
THE COMMERCIAL STRIP IN TRANSITION
1.1
The Advent, Reign, and Dissolution of the Strip
Americans who came of age in the middle of the 20th century can remember living in a
world in which all major shopping, offices, theaters, and government services were
downtown, with grocery markets and convenience stores clustered in neighborhoods. All
that changed in the 1960s, when roads leading from downtown to the newly emerging
suburbs were widened, stores and restaurants were set back behind parking lots, and the
commercial strip was born. The strip became the universal standard for suburban retail
development: low-slung commercial buildings, front parking lots, and tall, auto-oriented
signs arrayed along wide thoroughfares extending from downtown to the suburbs. They
seemed to match the look and feel of the new automobiles and modern architecture.
By the 1980s, virtually every city in America had strips leading to the suburbs (Figs. 1-2),
and many had several. And the suburban downtowns were dead or dying. Newer
suburban cities had no downtowns at all, just the strip and the mall. In a very short period
of time, the strip has become so familiar that it is hard to imagine our communities
without them.
Figure 1. A strip corridor in an urban setting. Image:
Figure 2. A strip corridor in a suburban setting. Image:
But in the 21st century, transforming the strip has become important to many cities and
towns. Although some strips remain successful, overall the strips tend to have
underperforming retail stores and generally do not work as arterial thoroughfares. In such
strips, vacancies are high, sales per square foot are low, and money to reinvest in aging
structures is scarce. Easy traffic movement is a thing of the past on many strips, as peak
traffic mounts in both duration and volume. And with public interest in solutions to
combat global warming, concern about volatile fuel prices, and desire for authentic places,
the strip’s sameness, its automobile-oriented design, and its pavement-dominated
environment are increasingly at odds with the public’s preferences. However, many older
strips are bordered by neighborhoods that depend on services and convenience retail
within walking distance, and could be redeveloped into walkable, mixed-use, transitoriented streets.
1
There is a silver lining to the creeping obsolescence of the strip. As strips are revitalized,
communities have the opportunity to also improve the quality of life for their
neighborhoods, create new economic opportunities, and make the strips more attractive,
more environmentally responsible, and more accessible to people with or without
automobiles. This report provides a roadmap for communities to harness the forces of
market demand in combination with the need for environmental and economic
sustainability to restore value to aging commercial corridors. This first section
summarizes the forces that created and fostered the growth of the strip and those that are
now undermining it. The second section contains a practical guide for communities to
respond strategically and effectively to harness those forces to revitalize our commercial
corridors. The report concludes with a third section focused on implementation.
1.2
The Advent and Mass Production of the Strip
The strip came along with the post-World War II demand for suburban development that
physically transformed the nation. The first big waves of that boom consisted nearly
entirely of housing initially there were virtually no stores, restaurants, services, or even
schools. The expanding suburban population’s need for convenient access to goods and
services of all kinds provided an enormous opportunity to connect the new suburbs, and a
need for auto-oriented development.
Although the strip is popularly believed to be a creature of the free market, the shopping
venues built in the new suburbs took the form of the strip primarily in response to
government actions. Government subsidies in the form of the federal home mortgage
program and the interstate highway system stimulated the movement of households from
cities to the new suburbs, providing the market demand and the infrastructure for other
uses to follow. In 1954, Congress created a massive subsidy for suburban commercial
development by modifying the tax code to allow owners to depreciate new commercial
buildings in seven years, in place of the long-standing 40-year requirement.1 This
―accelerated depreciation‖ sparked a 30-year construction boom in cheap strip
commercial buildings, along with
disincentives to maintain them (Fig. 3).
This fiscal formula persisted until the
passage of the Tax Reform Act of 1986,
coupled with the recession of the late
1980s, but it took nearly another decade
to absorb the glut of cheap retail space.2
Land use standards for the new suburbs
provided further incentives to build
quickly and cheaply by applying
Figure 3. Strip buildings built under accelerated
commercial zoning in linear
depreciation from 1954 to 1986 had no incentive to build for
arrangement to miles and miles of
quality or longevity. Image: Freedman Tung & Sasaki
properties lining the new suburban
1
2
Hayden, D. Building Suburbia. Pantheon Books, 2003, p. 162.
Ibid, p. 164.
2
roadways, vastly expanding the supply of land for commercial investment.3
This economic climate led to the construction of inexpensive, single-story buildings on
abundant, inexpensive properties at low densities. The combination of low densities and
new roadways provided little in the way of pedestrian comfort, customers arrived in
automobiles rather than on foot. With the focus now on autos, buildings were placed at
the rear of the site and the parking and signs at the front—and the commercial strip was
complete.
Nationwide subsidy programs, nationwide roadway design standards, and nationwide
zoning standards created successive waves of rapid suburban development resulted in the
mass production of standardized appearance along commercial corridors:

Free-standing stores surrounded by asphalt parking lots with many driveways, pole
signs, and limited landscaping (Fig. 4);

Signs that outdo the buildings in both size and character;

Buildings of modest or minimal visual distinctiveness (Fig. 5);

Wide, multilane roadways edged with monolithic curb-gutter-and-sidewalk
assemblies with narrow sidewalks and little or no curbside parking or pedestrian
amenities; intersections with multi-phased signals that may have two or even three
left-turn pockets, widening the crossing distance even more at busy intersections (Fig.
6); and

Long, undifferentiated corridors dominated by retail uses, with other commercial
activities and various special uses such as schools, cemeteries, and hospitals mixed in
(Fig. 7).
Figure 4. An example of the predominance of paved
surface parking associated with strip retail. Image:
Microsoft Virtual Earth
3
Figure 5. Strip corridor “monument” signs are typically
more prominent than their associated buildings. Image:
Barnett, J. Redesigning Cities. Planners Press, 2003, p. 151.
3
Figure 6. Example of a wide, multilane arterial
intersection. Image: Microsoft Virtual Earth
Figure 7. An example of the strip’s linear development
pattern. Image: Microsoft Virtual Earth
Dissatisfaction with the commercial strip has become increasingly common. Civic
leaders fret about its ugliness (Fig. 8). Commuters complain about its congestion, while
business owners on the strip suffer when congestion discourages customers. Would-be
pedestrians and bicyclists want the strips to be safer and more appealing for people not in
cars. Most recently, environmental activists, urban planners, and transit supporters have
united in their concern that strip development epitomizes the ―unsustainability‖ of
suburban sprawl: strip corridors’ extensive parking lots and paved surfaces, long
distances between stores, poor connectivity between uses, and low-density land coverage
all discourage walking, bicycling, and transit use (Fig. 9); generate multiple singlepurpose vehicle trips; increase use of and dependence on fossil fuels; and contribute to air
pollution, urban heat island effects, increased stormwater runoff, and depletion of water
resources and wildlife habitat.4 This coalition also draws attention to the connection
between auto-oriented sprawl and health problems, including obesity, asthma, and other
ailments. 5
Figure 8. Strips are often the most visible and least
attractive portions of a community. Image: Freedman Tung
& Sasaki
Figure 9. Pedestrian facilities on many strips lack adequate
space and protection from vehicular traffic. Image:
4
McKee, B. ―As Suburbs Grow, So Do Waistlines.‖ New York Times, September 4, 2003; Pryne,
E. ―2 Studies: Urban Sprawl Adds Pounds, Pollution.‖ Seattle Times, January 26, 2006.
5
Frumkin, H., Frank, L., and Jackson, R. Urban Sprawl and Public Health. Island Press, 2004.
4
1.3
Forces of Change Undermining the Strip
The strip remained the shopping industry’s preferred format for suburban retailing for
nearly four decades. The industry preferences, government subsidies, and supportive
zoning regulations that instigated the strip also combined to make the strip relatively
impregnable to change and the assumed form for most, if not all, commercial
development in suburban cities and townships. More recently, however, fundamental and
cumulative changes in retail development practices have been undermining the continued
viability of the strip.
First, the construction of the interstate
highway system in the 1960s and 1970s
created freeway interchanges that
provided enormous visibility and access
in comparison to other locations along the
long commercial corridors. This
framework did not have much of an effect
on the viability of the strip, however, until
the 1980s, when large concentrations of
stores were designed to take increasing
advantage of the highway interchanges,
Figure 10. Example of a regional mall at a regional
multiplying dramatically in number and
crossroads: Southcenter Mall, Tukwila, Washington. Image:
type. Newer and larger regional malls,
Microsoft Virtual Earth
anchored by department stores, were
located almost exclusively at large sites at freeway interchange locations to maximize
regional visibility and access (Fig. 10).
Later in the 1980s, developers and financiers expanded this trend by inventing an array of
enlarged and more specialized clustered retail formats. These included ―category killer‖
clusters (a large single-themed store, like electronics, furniture, or bed and bath, intended
to capture market share from smaller stores), big-box and superstore-anchored centers,
and increasingly large supermarket-anchored neighborhood centers. All of these new
formats needed large acreages at high-visibility, high-traffic locations. This amounted to
a change in the preferred form for suburban shopping center development from linear
strip and mall to a nodal pattern of evolving shopping centers.
5
In the 1990s, lifestyle changes and
consumer preferences instigated a shift
from the decades-old enclosed shopping
mall and strip center formats to open-air
―lifestyle centers‖ that combined
shopping with leisure activities. These
developments featured buildings with
downtown-like articulated storefronts
and façades, main streets, plazas,
promenades, and village greens (Fig. 11).
These lifestyle centers required large
sites at primary crossroads with high
drive-by volumes to deliver the number
of customers needed to support their
concentration of retail, entertainment,
and dining activities. These
developments also shifted further away
from the exclusively auto-oriented
shopping environment of strip retail
toward a shopping experience organized
around the pedestrian.
Figure 11. The Grove at the Farmer’s Market in Los Angeles,
California, is one example of a lifestyle center. Image:
Figure 12. Santana Row San Jose, California, is a lifestyle center
with residences above the stores. Image: Freedman Tung &
Sasaki
Continuing this transformation to more urban, amenity-driven formats, lifestyle centers
have been morphing into ―city center‖ developments with the addition of housing and
offices over the retail. As with the retail-only formats, the preferred locations for these
centers are at freeway interchanges and major arterial intersections. Projects like Mizner
Park in Boca Raton, Florida; Mashpee Commons in Mashpee, Massachusetts; and
Santana Row in San Jose, California (Fig. 12), illustrate this trend. More recent projects
include Belmar in Lakewood, Colorado, and the Domain in Austin, Texas, each built on
sites of over 80 acres.
These large, clustered, crossroads-located shopping formats are monopolizing demand
for the retail, entertainment, and services formerly spread out in linear strips along
arterials. Linear strip developments cannot coexist with the large centersthere are not
enough homes or offices in any suburban trade area to support both. The old strip model
of free-standing strip retail with its own private parking lot, its own advertising program,
and its own sign finds it harder to compete with the visibility, financing, and drawing
power of the newer centers. However, along older strips that were widened adjacent to
existing neighborhoods, some neighborhood-serving retail, restaurants, and entertainment
still function wellbut would be stronger if the corridor were better connected to this
base and made more walkable.
In comparison with crossroads centers, the ―in-between‖ portions of strips also have
particular conditions that exacerbate their market and development weaknesses. These
include:
6



A legacy of low-quality, short-lived construction along the strip instigated by the
previous period of accelerated depreciation;
A vast oversupply of properties zoned for retail use; and
Inflexibility of typical strip property configurations, which have very long blocks,
often with shallow parcels that are economically inefficient to redevelop, hemmed-in
by stable and valuable single-family homes.
Figure 13. Disinvestment along the strip affects properties at all
scales of development. Image: Freedman Tung & Sasaki
Figure 14. Diagram of retail succession: strips first drained
retail away from traditional downtowns, and freeway/arterial
clusters then pulled higher-value retail from strips. Image:
As a result, the strip’s typical
pattern today is one with more
prosperous concentrations on large
sites at the major crossroads and a
high level of disinvestment on the
sites in between (Fig. 13). By 2001,
the Urban Land Institute (ULI) had
declared that ―the future of strip
development is becoming less
certain.‖6 As time goes by, linear
strip retail is likely to continue to
lose value. This pattern of succession
and disinvestment is not new—strips
themselves once drained value from
many a downtown, and the
crossroads centers are repeating the
pattern today (Fig. 14).
The escalating destabilization of the
strip comes at a time of not only
shifts in demographics and
associated consumer preferences, but
also growing concerns about
inefficient use of natural resources
and the costs and environmental
impacts of sprawling development
patterns. Communities will probably
be motivated to re-plan the strip not
only to restore economic vitality, but
also to implement land use and
mobility solutions to reduce reliance
on the car and to conserve energy
and natural resources. In cases where
inner-ring suburbs and neighboring
cities are connected by aging
commercial strips surrounded by
6
Beyard, M. and Pawlukiewicz, M. Ten Principles for Reinventing America’s Suburban Strips.
The Urban Land Institute, 2001, p. iv.
7
more compact, walkable neighborhoods, corridor redevelopment can provide mixed-use
centers for expansion of transit; an informal network of new, smaller, parallel streets
connecting aging centers with adjacent neighborhoods and with each other; and more
workforce and affordable housing.
In summary, the forces of change that produced and bolstered the commercial strip have
been eclipsed by new forces of change that undermine the viability of the commercial
strip in its present form. Growing demand for mixed-use and energy- and resourceefficient development is accelerating the cycle of change from linear strip retail to
people-oriented centers, from spread out to concentrated, and from auto-oriented to
walkable and transit-oriented.
1.4
Revitalization by Restructuring the Strip
To realign aging commercial strip corridors with the forces of market demand, the strip
should be significantly and deliberately restructured into a form which property owners,
developers, and communities will once again invest.
The necessary restructuring should be carried out on both sides of the corridor’s right-ofway line. For properties lining the corridor, revitalization requires a restructuring of land
use and development patterns. A change from auto-oriented to multimodal transportation
through and near the corridor can help guide and focus redevelopment, which in turn will
enhance mobility through the corridor. The land use pattern and the thoroughfare design
should be planned together and reinforce each other. Part Two of this report provides
planning and design strategies for these two interrelated components.
Orchestrating strip corridor revitalization requires leadership by local government.
Commercial strips are composed of hundreds or even thousands of separate parcelsfar
too many individually owned properties for any single property owner or developer to
substantially influence. Also, with the future of a prominent part of the
neighborhood at issue, stakeholder and resident involvement in the re-planning process
will be critical to making sure the revitalization meets local needs, to political acceptance,
and to implementation. The local government’s overarching goal is to provide a credible
and reliable development context within which private and public dollars will be invested
to create a different type of corridor, from which residents, business owners, the
municipality, and other stakeholders can once again derive value. Part Three of this
report addresses the challenges, decision-making process, and key policy tools critical to
successful corridor revitalization.
8
2.
ORCHESTRATING REVITALIZATION: THE CORRIDOR
RESTRUCTURING STRATEGY
Strip corridor revitalization requires two complementary strategies: restructuring the
pattern of land use and development lining the corridor and incorporating the redesign of
the public right-of-way. These strategies often require a re-tooling of the transportation
network to support the restructured development pattern and its role in the regional
transportation network. The restructuring of the development pattern and the street
redesign should work in concert with one another to stimulate and support new
investment. This section presents a step-by-step approach to accomplishing this two-fold
task.
2.1
RESTRUCTURING LAND USE AND DEVELOPMENT ALONG THE
STRIP
Decisions regarding the positioning of buildings, which way their front entrances face,
the uses occupying the structures, the treatment of the spaces between the building and
the street, the location of parking facilities, the height and intensity of the development,
and the average length of street frontage occupied by a single development, collectively
determine the character and performance of a neighborhood. What we call ―the strip‖ is
one kind of arrangement. This section provides a practical guide for transforming that
pattern to one more aligned with current consumer, investor, and community preferences.
2.1.1
REORGANIZE RETAIL FROM LINEAR TO NODAL
Since market-driven change in shopping industry development formats is a crucial factor
driving change along commercial corridors, revitalization planning should start with a
reevaluation of retail development patterns along the corridor. A local government can
follow these consecutive steps when re-planning the retail-driven portions of a corridor.
2.1.1.1
Identify the most favorable locations for contemporary
(clustered) retail investment.
The restructuring plan is intended to encourage and accommodate the transformation
from linear strip retail to clustered retail at crossroad locations. This requires identifying
the most favorable locations along the corridor for retail clusters. A preliminary map of
preferred retail locations can be easily prepared by plotting the existing hierarchy of
crossroads, from freeway interchange to major at-grade intersection to minor at-grade
intersection, and then ranking each crossroads by existing and projected traffic volumes
at the intersections (Fig. 15).
9
If the evening commute home from work
is predominately in one direction, then
properties along the homeward-bound
side of the road (if the corridor features
two-way traffic) will be more favorable to
shopping center investors. This will be
particularly true for smaller,
neighborhood-serving clusters anchored
by supermarkets.
Another important consideration is the
availability of sufficient property for
development or redevelopment. A
property that is very awkwardly shaped,
very shallow, or small and hemmed in by
Figure15. Diagram illustrating the essence of the shift
economically stable development (such as
from linear strip retail (top) to retail clustered at primary
occupied and well maintained singlecrossroads. Image: Freedman Tung & Sasaki
family homes) is not likely a viable
location for a future center, even if it is located at a prominent intersection on the
homeward-bound side of the road during the evening commute.
In many instances, the crossroads locations identified as most favorable for retail
development will already be occupied by contemporary anchored shopping clusters. Due
to the availability of developable property, in some cases new clusters may be close to,
but not exactly at, a crossroads location. If these centers are new and quite successful,
they should be designated in the plan as official retail center locations. That is, the
planning process should not try to force a successful development pattern into a purely
theoretical framework.
Taking all of these factors into consideration—the hierarchy of crossroads locations, the
direction of the evening commute, the availability of property for investment, and the
pattern of existing successful retail concentrations—the planning team can map a
hierarchy of the most favorable potential locations for clustered retail development along
the corridor. This preliminary pattern for future retail will be refined further once it is
examined in the context of existing retail development in the neighborhood and region.
2.1.1.2
Identify a potential hierarchy of retail venues.
Unfortunately, the investment in contemporary retail development that is realistic for the
corridor is not limited simply by the number and size of potentially favorable sites. It is
more severely limited by the number of potential customers for the stores, the eateries,
and the services in those developments. To see how many potentially favorable retail
locations might be viable (as well as how much retail might be feasible on any of the
sites), the planning team should match as many sites as possible with customer
populations that are either in place now or that will be in place within the timeframe of
the corridor plan. This approach typically requires an economic and market analysis as
described in Appendix A.
10
Table 1. Hierarchy of Retail Venues
Regional centers
Trade area: a minimum of 150,000 households within 12 to
15 miles of the center.
Location: on an interstate highway interchange that provides
a convenient junction between the communities that it serves.
Features: Regional centers are anchored by department stores
and increasingly include big-box and superstore retail,
including major ―category killer‖ stores. Venues provide
comparison-shopping retail, especially for clothing, and
specialty goods such as furniture, home improvement, and
electronics. A wide assortment of restaurants is part of the
standard mix, as are movie theaters and often other
entertainment anchors.
City centers
Trade area: 5- to 7-mile trade area containing a minimum of
30,000 to 50,000 households.
Location: convenient to the homes in the trade area.
Features: City centers are ideal locations for supermarkets,
banks, and pharmacies but incorporate significantly fewer
major anchors than regional centers. Many of them are built
around civic or cultural anchors, another distinguishing
factor from regional shopping centers. Mainstays include
restaurants, shops, and entertainment venues oriented to a
walkable street. Shops can offer a wide range of goods.
Neighborhood centers
Trade area: at least 5,000 to 8,000 households.
Location: serve a collection of neighborhoods located within
1 or 2 miles of the center.
Features: Neighborhood centers located on particularly busy
thoroughfares can make up for the lack of nearby homes by
also catering to passing motorists. Currently, the most widely
accepted format for a neighborhood retail center is anchored
by a supermarket of up to 65,000 square feet with a
pharmacy positioned at the opposite end and smaller shops
and services in between.7
Corner stores occupy the smallest niche between the
neighborhood centers within walking distance of homes too
far from the nearest supermarket-anchored center or at
intersections with sufficient drive-by traffic.
Retail venues, summarized in
Table 1, are defined by the trade
areas, or target customer
populations, that they serve. The
target market of each center
determines the appropriate types
and mix of retail and services in
the development.
Planning and regulation for the
retail-driven centers designated by
a corridor restructuring plan should
create a hierarchy of shopping
center formats that shopping
industry investors will recognize.
Working with these classifications
is important to anchor a
restructuring plan in the realities of
the retailing world. The Urban
Land Institute (ULI)8 and
International Council of Shopping
Centers (ICSC)9 publish a list of
shopping center classifications.
The industry classifications fall
roughly into four categories—
regional centers, city centers,
neighborhood centers, and corner
stores.10
In the preliminary selection of the
sites most favorable for clustered
retail development, the largest
crossroad locations—the major
freeway interchanges that are often
at the outer edges of cities—are
potential regional centers; the
primary crossroad locations closer
to the geographical center of the
community are more likely
7
Leinberger,C. The Option of Urbanism. Island Press, 2008, p. 52.
Kramer, A., Dollars and Cents of Shopping Centers/The Score 2006: A Study of Receipts and
Expenses Shopping Center Operations, The Urban Land Institute, 2006, pp. 5-6.
9
ICSC, ―ICSC Shopping Center Definitions: Basic Configurations and Types for the United
States.‖ http://www.icsc.org/srch/lib/USDefinitions.pdf, 2004.
10
These are not the precise terms used by ICSC or ULI, nor are they the only types; they are the
primary categories into which most shopping center types fall.
8
11
potential city centers; and the sites at secondary but still highly visible crossroads are
potential neighborhood centers or corner stores (Fig. 16). Once these locations are
identified, matching sites with available customer populations will begin to narrow down
the number of sites that are viable for retail development.
Figure 16. Retail clusters are matched with their corresponding trade areas, resulting in a hierarchy of retail
development types corresponding to the ranked hierarchy of crossroads locations. Image: Freedman Tung & Sasaki
2.1.1.3
Plan corridor retail as part of a supportable local and regional
framework.
To determine the optimum supportable pattern for retail along the corridor, the planning
team will assess the relative position of the corridor—all its best crossroad locations and
the associated properties—within the overall spectrum of retail development locally and
regionally. This is critical. Although every region will have a regional center and every
city with at least 30,000 households can support a city center (or a city center shared with
a neighboring city), not every city and regional center will be on the corridor that the plan
is focused on.
A review of the pattern of successful, existing regional and local centers provides an
essential piece of the puzzle in planning corridor retail to fit within a supportable
framework of local and regional retail development (the inventory and mapping of these
centers are part of the Existing Conditions Inventory described in Appendix A). The
presence of successful, well-located, competing centers within the trade area, even if they
are not actually on the corridor, will likely be a major constraint on the number and type
of retail-driven centers that are viable on corridor properties. For example, the city of
Huntington Beach, California, determined through a corridor restructuring plan that the
trade area being studied could support three city centers, but that one was already
present—downtown Huntington Beach—and not on the corridor, meaning that only two
new centers would be viable along the corridor. A study of an emerging corridor in the
city of Brentwood, California, found the corridor could support a range of neighborhood
shopping centers, but not any new city or regional centers, because it was between a
historic downtown to the south and a new regional center rapidly growing along the
northern edge of the city (Fig. 17).
12
Figure 17. This conceptual diagram illustrates the recommended hierarchy of centers and shows that only
neighborhood centers are viable along the Brentwood Boulevard corridor, given the existing downtown at the
corridor’s southern terminus and the regional center to the northwest (Brentwood Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan,
City of Brentwood, California). Image: Freedman Tung & Sasaki
Since metropolitan regions are crisscrossed with an overabundance of competing
commercial corridors which effectively dilutes investment, and since commercial
corridors typically traverse municipal boundaries, the future pattern of local and regional
centers is best planned at the regional scale.
The completion of these three tasks—identifying the most favorable sites for clustered
commercial space along the corridor, defining a hierarchy of potential centers by
matching cluster size and mix to trade area, and planning the hierarchy of retail clusters as
part of a supportable city and regional framework—will enable the preparation of a
diagram designating s supportable framework of retail-driven centers for the corridor (Fig.
18).
13
Figure 18. The pattern of centers planned for the Sprague Avenue corridor in Spokane Valley, Washington (The
Sprague & Appleway Corridors Subarea Plan, currently under city review). Image: Freedman Tung & Sasaki
How much of this pattern is already on the ground and how quickly the planned
development might emerge will vary from corridor to corridor. But in many cases, the
pattern of retail centers sets up the corridor restructuring framework. It overlays the
failing linear strip with a pattern that distinguishes retail-driven centers from the long
portions of corridor frontage between the centers.
2.1.2
CREATE REAL CENTERS
Although it is possible to produce successful shopping centers clustered at crossroad sites
with auto-oriented, low-density, single-use, superblock development, this pattern is
however unlikely to create a framework for lasting value.

There is growing evidence that we have too much single-use, auto-oriented housing,
shopping, and employment development, whereas there is substantial, verifiable pentup market demand for what Christopher Leinberger has labeled ―walkable
urbanism‖compact, mixed-use, pedestrian-oriented districts served by transit.
Single-use, surface-parked ―lifestyle centers‖ that visually mimic historic main streets
but are in isolated locations along arterials remain ―drivable suburbia‖ and are likely
to lose value sooner or later to walkable urban alternatives, unless they are
redeveloped as mixed-use, walkable, transit-oriented centers with housing (and
customers) replacing the surrounding surface parking lots.11

A segment of employees, the so-called ―creative class,‖12 prefer environments that
feature what Doug Henton has termed ―vital centers of regions, towns, and
neighborhoods:‖
Creativity is encouraged by work and living environments that allow for
a lot of interaction among people. . . . The proximity, density, and
publicness of vital centers stimulate interaction among people. Vital
centers are typically filled with the kinds of places conducive to planned
meetings as well as chance encounters.13
Cities and regions will increasingly try to foster the innovation and creativity that
have become the primary value generators of the global economy. This will lead
11
Leinberger, C. The Option of Urbanism. Island Press, 2008.
Florida,R. The Creative Class. Basic Books, 2002.
13
Henton, D. and Walesh, K., Linking the New Economy to the Livable Community. The James
Irvine Foundation, 1998, p. 16.
12
14
policy makers interested in economic development to value and promote compact
agglomerations of workplaces, homes, services, and activity.14

Political pressures to address global warming, energy inefficiency, and traffic
congestion are encouraging metropolitan regions to build and extend transit services
and to plan new development that can take advantage of transit infrastructure.15 Lowdensity communities present challenges for public transit. Effective public transit
relies on a pattern of centers with density, activity, and mixed land uses at transit
stops, along with safe, walkable streets connecting to the surrounding ridership base.
The market, social, and political forces driving change will not be satisfied by merely
reorganizing strip retail into shopping centers at large intersections. For communities to
derive maximum benefit from the restructuring of the corridor, and for developers and
property owners to invest in types that appeal to today’s consumer, corridor restructuring
efforts must place priority on assembling the conditions that foster diversity, synergy, and
activity. Below are some key strategies to accomplish this goal.
2.1.2.1
Provide a development framework that fosters a healthy mix of
uses.
The primary characteristics of real centers are activity, synergy, and mix. The greater the
number of uses, the more reasons people will have to frequent the district over the course
of a day. Corridor restructuring plans should employ planning tools such as mixed-use
zoning ordinances to foster the development of both activity-generating uses and a local
customer base for those uses.
Retail, food service, and entertainment venues are primary activity-generating uses, the
key ingredients for street life and urban vitality. Ground-level retail should be required
for buildings in centers’ core activity zones.
A wide range of homes and workplaces (in sufficient density, which will be discussed in
Section 2.1.3) above and close to a ground-level base of activity-generating uses is
critical to supporting the retail and services. In most communities, development policies
should require buildings in the core (the ones with ground-floor shops) to be mixed use
and should promote housing, office, live-work, lodging, light industrial, and
manufacturing along adjacent blocks. In lower density suburban neighborhoods, the
densest housing should surround the clustered commercial buildings.
The widest possible diversity of shops, residences, and workplaces (especially those that
employ large numbers of employees per square foot) should be encouraged. To that end,
plans for centers on sites with existing, older buildings in good structural condition
should include provisions to retain a mix of such structures to supply more affordable
locations for shops, homes, and offices. This range of affordability is vital to create a
14
Contemporary publications such as those by Henton and Florida illuminate the connection
between urban vitality and innovation, and they echo Jane Jacobs’ pioneering work on this issue in
The Economy of Cities and in Cities and the Wealth of Nations.
15
Dittmar, H. and Ohland, G., ed., The New Transit Town. Island Press, 2004.
15
district that can incubate and support the distinctive businesses, shops, and services that
do so much to distinguish a thriving urban district.
2.1.2.2
Foster high concentrations of land use intensity in centers.
Real centers concentrate activity by virtue of the density of their mix of uses. More than
anything else, the greater development intensity of centers makes them easy to
distinguish from other parts of the city or suburb. They should be visibly taller, denser,
and busierthe most urban places in the region. Policies conditioning development in
centers should require greater lot coverage, smaller setbacks from the street, and greater
height, which will engage more people. Such policies should include minimum intensities
and/or building heights and maximum parking provisions, as well as prohibiting private
surface parking lots in centers. While the particular heights or densities will vary
depending on the location in the region and on center type, even the smallest
neighborhood center should ultimately display much more activity than its surroundings,
while the regional center should be characterized by greater intensity than anything for
miles around.16
2.1.2.3
Organize buildings and the spaces between them to cultivate
street life.
The concentrations of shops, homes, and workplaces that bring us to centers must be
physically arranged to entice us out into the public spaces between the buildings. The
buildings should define and open onto public streets, and the streets and street network
should be designed to make walking, sitting, chatting, and meeting a pleasure. Some
ways to design centers to encourage street life include:
Orient buildings to activate streets. To create active street life, the buildings that house
ground-level shops, cafes, restaurants, and community services should define and activate
inviting pedestrian-oriented streets, plazas, and town squaresspaces to linger when the
weather is fine. Public sidewalks lined by shops, buildings with large display windows,
frequently placed doors, and human-scaled signs add interest and distinguish the street.
These features can be designed in many different ways, but they are the ones that
consistently make a center’s streets successful.
Provide a central focus. The ―center of the center‖ demands some sort of centerpiece or
focal place. Frequently, this is a formal public space such as a town square or plaza, or it
might be designed along the lines of a traditional downtown ―Main Street.‖ A central
main street with curbside parking, a steady stream of slow-moving traffic, and alwaysavailable views into appealing shops and restaurants.
Design streets around pedestrian comfort. All streets in the center should feature
generous sidewalks and amenities. In the core shopping and eating area, sidewalks should
be wide enough to accommodate outdoor dining. Internal streets should contain no more
than two through-lanes, with curbside parking on both sides. Buildings should be built
16
The Urban Land Institute describes this approach as ―Pulse Nodes of Development‖ – see
Michael D. Beyard and Michel Pawlukiewicz, Ten Principles for Reinventing America’s Suburban
Strips. The Urban Land Institute, 2001, pp. 10-11.
16
right up to the sidewalks with doors and windows facing the street. Along segments of
the corridor that have more than two lanes, additional design features will be required to
ensure pedestrian comfort; the design of the corridor frontage is discussed later in this
report.
Provide a network of small blocks. A pattern of small blocks with street alignments
connecting to surrounding neighborhoods is critical to pedestrian activity. Small blocks
shorten walking distances between the uses and destinations in the district; large ones
discourage walking and create barriers between customers and the shops that they would
otherwise frequent. Corridor restructuring efforts will often result in the redevelopment of
large parcels along the corridor, particularly as existing centers intensify and newly
designated ones emerge. This redevelopment is an important opportunity to convert
superblocks into smaller ones, which can divert trips to and from corridor destinations off
the arterial and onto new alternative routes. Redeveloping strip corridor shopping centers
offers the potential for these sites to be transformed from impervious ―superblocks‖ to
urban center districts with new through-routes. The finer ―grain‖ (smaller blocks) and
increased street frontages on the internal through-routes of these centers create more
walkable setting for new buildings and public open spaces (Figs. 19 and 20).
Locate parking to support walking. For visitors who drive to the center, a park-once-andwalk experience should be the most appealing and practical way to visit. Where surface
parking is required for development feasibility, surface lots should be to the rear of
primary building frontages and configured to allow their conversion to structured parking
as land values rise and development intensity increases.
Figure 19. Existing development pattern at and around Bella Terra Mall in Huntington Beach, California. Most
buildings are set back from streets behind large parking lots, existing streets and blocks have low connectivity, and the
“front door” of the area is a conventional strip (Beach and Edinger Corridors Specific Plan, City of Huntington
Beach, California). Image: Freedman Tung & Sasaki
17
Figure 20. Augmentation of the shopping center and adjacent infill properties with an proposed City Center district
featuring pedestrian-scaled blocks and connected streets to break up the “superblock” pattern (Beach and Edinger
Corridors Specific Plan, City of Huntington Beach, California). Image: Freedman Tung & Sasaki
2.1.2.4
Avoid bisecting the district with arterial roadways.
The easiest mistake to make in re-planning commercial corridors is to plan retail
concentrations on all four corners of a large intersection and label the intersection a
―center‖ on the restructuring plan. Intersections offering sufficient visibility to host a city
or regional center will usually feature many through lanes and turning lanes, resulting in
very wide or unsafe crossing distances and making it seem like the stores on each corner
are separate destinations. Alternative strategies for locating walkable centers along
commercial arterial corridors include:
Locate the center on one quadrant of
the intersection. Where a center is
planned along a conventional arterial
roadway, select one—and only one—
of the four intersection quadrants to
house the future center (Fig. 21). The
arterial will then run along two edges
of the center, providing visibility and
access, but will not bisect the district.
In most cases, the center will be sited
on one of the two quadrants on the
going-home side of the arterial, as
explained in Section 2.1.1. If an
existing, planned, or potential station
along a regional transit network is or
could be located in a particular
Figure 21. Conceptual diagram of a retail center (in red)
located at one of the four quadrants of an arterial intersection.
Image: Freedman Tung & Sasaki
18
quadrant, that quadrant should be selected since it will be significantly more attractive to
office and residential investment than the others. Picking a single quadrant for a new city
center will often be the only viable option for most built-out suburban communities.
Slow and narrow through-traffic within the center. Build the center on all four quadrants
of the intersection, and redesign the street through the center to feature wide sidewalks
and curbside parking, which will help calm traffic. Convert the excess width of the
roadway either by narrowing the right-of-way, building head-in parking along the curbs,
or providing a linear pedestrian green in the center. This option sacrifices through-traffic
capacity (it creates a ―bottleneck‖ in the arterial) in favor of a better shopping experience
for the pedestrians that can lead to improved economic development in the center.
Redesign the corridor as a multiway boulevard. Redesign the portion of the arterial
running along the center in the form of a multiway boulevard, locating the center on one
or both of its sides. The multiway boulevard is particularly effective because it combines
relatively high traffic volumes with pedestrian comfort. The sidebar on page 32 provides
a detailed description of this option. A boulevard can also include tight, urban-scaled,
grade-separated intersections to maintain traffic flow while connecting both sides of the
corridor.
Configure the arterial as a one-way couplet within the center. When planning the central
district for a new city or town, plan the town center at a specially configured intersection
of two arterials. Just outside the center, split the arterial into a one-way couplet spaced by
one walkable block (approximately 300 feet wide). The key to success is to limit the
width of each of the one-way through-streets to not more than two through-lanes with
curbside parking on both sides of the street—these street environments are easy to cross
and comfortable to walk along and would not create edges to the central district, but
would provide the best streets for
storefronts and activity. The couplets
rejoin once they are past the center. This
model was developed by Peter
Calthorpe17 and has been applied by
Calthorpe Associates at San Elijo Hills
Village in San Marcos, California (Fig.
22). This configuration is typically less
feasible for built-out areas because of
the stable, single-family homes behind
Figure 22. An arterial crossing configured as a one-way
couplet and town square at San Elijo Hills Village, San
the commercial frontage lining the
Marcos, California. Image: Microsoft Virtual Earth
arterial.
2.1.2.5
Enhance transit potential.
Centers become centers precisely by becoming the most vital, active, and accessible
places in a community. In typical suburban locations, a strategic location on the regional
highway and arterial network is essential to center size, mix, and success. But centers’
17
Calthorpe, P. ―The Urban Network: A Radical Proposal,‖ Planning Magazine. May, 2002.
19
viability will come depend more on their accessibility to growing regional transit
networks.
Planning active centers along with improved regional transit service will ensure that
transit plays a more significant role in regional mobility. Focusing centers on transit
stations also expands the trade area to the broader region. In addition, the center will need
to be easy to reach by any and all modes—private automobiles, transit, walking, and
bicycling. Corridor restructuring plans should take every opportunity to enhance the
center’s role as a primary node in a multimodal transportation network.
Neighborhood centers and city centers should be easy-to-walk-to destinations for a good
share of their trade areas. Properly located neighborhood centers (at the center of their 1to 2-mile trade area) can be a 10-minute walk for up to half of their customers. The full
neighborhood center trade area should be accessible to bicyclists as well.
2.1.2.6
Locate civic buildings in centers.
Civic buildings add diversity to the mix of uses and broaden the times of day that people
have reason to frequent the center. Civic buildings can also provide authenticity and
meaning as iconic symbols for neighborhoods, cities, and regions. This quality is best
illustrated by traditional urban centers, where courthouse squares, parks, and public
plazas offer places to gather, rest, host community events, and enhance buildings.
Including such places in centers —especially if they have genuine community
functions—is one strategy to differentiate real centers from shopping developments.
2.1.3
RESTORE VALUE AND PROMINENCE TO SEGMENTS
Organizing retail development into a clear pattern of centers brings the corridor
segments—the long portions of corridor between centers—into sharp focus. Whereas
many crossroads-located properties have become increasingly valuable for retail-driven
investment, the properties along the segments in between continue to lose value. Corridor
segments are typically several miles long and can be composed of hundreds of separately
owned parcels of varying sizes. These properties may have already been hurt by retail
investors’ abandonment of the strip format along many corridors. They are the portions of
the strip where disinvestment—or the threat of disinvestment—is most severe.
This section provides strategies to restore the corridor’s identity as a prominent address.
Strategies for aging corridor segments complement, and are supported by, the strategies
for the centers described in Section 2.1.2. As with centers, restoring value along the
segments involves realigning the pattern of land use development along corridor-fronting
properties with contemporary demand and with the principles of sustainable community
design.
2.1.3.1
Identify alternative value for segments.
To provide an effective planning framework that will stimulate investment in the long
corridor segments no longer being used for retail, corridor plans must enable viable
alternatives to strip retail and shopping centers. In some strip segments, this can be done
20
by building on strong commercial assets already in place; in others it will mean
identifying and promoting new uses and development types that can restore value to
segment properties.
Reinforce and build on value already in place. The first place to look for sources of value
for the segments is along the corridor itself. The inventory of assets conducted at the
outset of the planning process will have identified those areas experiencing existing and
―creeping‖ disinvestment, as well as assets in place that are doing well. In many instances,
some corridor segments will have stable or prospering commercial uses, such as clusters
of specialized auto-accessed retail uses (such as auto dealerships), clusters of non-retail
uses (such as lodging, medical uses, offices, or constellations of light manufacturing,
assembly, and distribution), or retail and service businesses that do not cluster (such as
institutional uses like schools and medical facilities or retail uses that need a lot of land
but are relatively unsuited to pedestrian-oriented retail centers, such as nurseries or stores
selling construction materials). Where assets like these are stable and in place, the plan
should bolster and extend their market draw by promoting investment in similar or
complementary uses on nearby properties. As described in Section II, street
improvements can support such policy initiatives by providing an environment that is
keyed to the market focus of a corridor segment.
Enable residential investment as the most viable and predominant alternate use for
segments experiencing disinvestment. For segments without a strong existing commercial
focus, housing will almost always be the most promising ingredient for future value. The
same market preferences driving the surge in demand for compact, walkable, mixed-use
centers are driving demand for a wider range of housing types.18 Older strips across the
United States are a vast supply of underused land that can be made available to meet
much of that demand.
Even heavily disinvested segments far from the primary freeway off-ramps and major
intersections often run along the edges of residential neighborhoods of considerable
economic stability and value. In the post-strip suburban city, it is easier for corridor
frontages to attract value by integrating with the neighborhoods they border than by
trying to compete with far-away crossroads properties for shoppers and retail investors.
In most suburban neighborhoods, strip corridors cut abruptly through what is otherwise
exclusively residential neighborhoods. Restructuring these corridors with new housing
not only captures value for corridor property owners, it also improves the neighborhoods
that flank the corridor. It replaces uses and development types that conflict with
neighborhood character with uses and development types that complete the neighborhood
along its natural boundarythe wide road itself rather than the back property line of
businesses along the road (Fig. 23). Re-making the corridor to put housing on frontage
parcels is an opportunity to ―finish‖ the residential neighborhood—to transform it from a
place that ends with dumpsters to one that is bounded by housing and punctuated by the
neighborhood centers discussed in Section 2.1.2. Residents in strip corridor-abutting
neighborhoods would typically support a plan that would reduce or eliminate noise, odor,
18
Leinberger, C. ―The Next Slum?‖ The Atlantic. March, 2008.
21
and privacy impacts of strip development by replacing it with properly designed housing
(Fig. 24).
Figure 23. The backyard fence between the neighborhood
and strip commercial is often a thin divider between the
home and trash containers, parking lots, and their bright
lights. Image: Microsoft Virtual Earth.
Figure 24. Sketch of infill corridor housing to replace
aging strip retail, illustrating properly scaled residential
development providing an identity and an edge for the
neighborhood along the wide road, and stepping down
toward the rear for compatibility with the existing
housing. (80 to 80 corridor Revitalization Plan, City of
Fairfield, California). Image: Freedman Tung & Sasaki
Residential development along corridors also typically supports larger municipal or
regional objectives that are tied to longer-term market trends. Accommodating housing in
mature urban areas and highly accessible portions of newly developing communities is in
line with regional smart growth strategies. The shock of unprecedentedly high gasoline
prices in 2008 emphasized the importance of these strategies, as people became
increasingly attuned to the time and money they could save by choosing to live closer to
their workplaces or to transit instead of enduring long, congested, and costly driving
commutes from homes in exurban locations.
2.1.3.2
Extend residential entitlements to most properties along the
corridor.
To re-enable the highest and best use for the corridor as a whole, municipal zoning needs
to be rewritten to reflect the varied potentials of centers and segments. Municipal land
use and development policies put into place during the heyday of the strip were written
when the highest and best use was the same for the crossroads as it was for the segments
between them. Now that retail investors are passing over properties that are not well
located, typical commercial-only strip zoning leaves property owners in segments with
limited use options and thus often is a barrier to reinvestment.
To restore value to older segments, residential entitlements should be extended to all or
most corridor properties. One option for making this change is to add residential use to
those permitted along the corridor. A more effective approach is to replace
underperforming retail entitlements with residential entitlements in segments that are well
suited for housing, providing complementary market support for both centers and
segments. Replacement with, rather than addition of, residential entitlements provides
22
greater incentive for desired change. If the full range of retail entitlements remains in
place, property owners may be tempted to hold their properties in anticipation of a hopedfor future retail development that they believe to be more lucrative.
Accommodate a wide range of housing types and price points. Relatively strict adherence
to development ordinances that specify the physical requirements of housing will ensure
that the segment will look attractive. These ordinances should permit a wide range of
housing types, including large single-family homes, duplexes, attached or stacked
townhomes, courtyard housing, and flats. Communities can use these development
standards to open up the potential of wider roads to provide more housing types,
accommodating a variety of incomes and family structures.
Accommodate a wide range of uses within segments where residential development is
planned to be the likely dominant use. Compatibility of building types is the key to
mixing uses and to the success of segments. Building type compatibility can only be
ensured by establishing and enforcing a development code that offers flexibility of use
but is quite specific with regard to physical form (the opposite of most strip zoning
codes). The development code must establish the characteristics and positioning of
building types to ensure that all permitted uses are good neighbors to each other and
particularly to a potential residential development. The same setbacks, building
orientation, buffering devices, and architectural consistency required for corridor-fronting
housing must be applied to office, lodging, live-work, and permitted commercial uses
within the segment.
2.1.3.3
Permit a range of investment along the segment.
Corridor plans should avoid determining which use will replace disinvesting properties in
any given segment. Instead, plans should accommodate the widest possible spectrum of
uses, especially non-retail uses, in segments and provide a policy framework that ensures
that the various uses will combine gracefully.
Adjust the planning framework to support and enhance segments likely to retain
commercial specialization. In addition to clustered retail and high-density development in
centers and in residential and mixed-use segments, restructured corridors will also
frequently feature segments with neither shopping nor residential focus, such as
employment districts straddling segments, segments specializing in auto sales, and
segments featuring large and diversified medical services and health care, probably
clustered around a major hospital. As with the residential segments, each of these
segments will have a range of frontage characteristics that are configured to support the
predominant use and create a distinctive and unified segment identity. Similarly, where
the rear property lines of these non-residential uses transition to homes, they will need
proper buffering that includes height and orientation of buildings and spaces. These
relationships must be addressed in the development code.
23
Figure 25. Rendering of a workplace district master plan concept for East Palo
Alto, California, where the workplace district straddles the arterial road and
positions its “front door” visibility and amenity on the corridor, but has most of
its workplace buildings extending several blocks off the corridor on either side
(The East Palo Alto Revitalization Plan, City of East Palo Alto, California).
Workplace segments. A
typical model for a
workplace segment is
one that extends back
from the corridor, with
the properties fronting
the corridor forming the
―front door‖ of the
district. In this situation,
the corridor segment is
designed for high
visibility and
strengthens its local and
regional identity, even if
workers and visitors are
heading to destinations
located a block or more
off the arterial itself
(Figs. 25 - 27).
Figures 26 and 27. Two views of Plumas Boulevard, the
town square, and workplace buildings built according to
the development code (Central City Specific Plan And
Revitalization Strategy, City Of Yuba City, California).
24
Auto row segments. Many corridors have
segments dominated by auto sales and
services. In some cases, these are wellestablished businesses that contribute
significantly to the municipality’s tax
revenues, and where large-site
dealerships are contiguous, they can
create recognizable ―auto rows.‖ In other
locations, repair shops, gas stations, and
other commercial strip uses are
interspersed between dealerships; space
for expansion may also be limited. The
Figure 28. Auto Row on Broadway in Oakland, California,
where the city has applied a recognizable streetscape and
advent of assembled and clustered auto
enhanced frontage treatments to auto dealership sites for a
mall sites may pose significant
strengthened segment identity. Image: Freedman Tung &
competition to auto row segments, just as Sasaki
clustered retail has affected corridor
segment retail. If the intent is to retain and strengthen the auto row segment, unifying and
upgrading the physical character of the segment is an important means of strengthening
regional recognition (Fig. 28).
In sum, planning the replacement of aging strip retail along corridor segments is much
more than a simple change in use. It is a change in structure that integrates with and
completes the surrounding neighborhoods. Instead of low-rise buildings in the middle of
parking lots, there are multistory buildings with attractive facades and front-yard
landscaping to be admired by passersby on the wide thoroughfare. What makes the
replacement development so effective are the features that make the segment a boulevard,
as much as if not more than the change in use. And without the structural change,
residential use is particularly unlikely to be viable—living along a boulevard is more
appealing than living along a strip.
To orchestrate and promote this essential structural change, development regulations
should undergo a parallel change in structure. Instead of being organized by use, they
should be organized by center and segment, with regulations that enforce the necessary
anatomy of segments and centers, of which use forms only a small part. Part Three
contains an overview of the application of development codes that orchestrate the
necessary change in structure that lies at the heart of restoring lasting corridor value.
25
2.2
RESTRUCTURING THE RIGHT-OF-WAY
Whereas planners and engineers think of the public right-of-way and the properties lining
the corridor as separate design and planning elements, people using the strip perceive the
corridor’s buildings, parking lots, and street space as ―the strip‖—a singular item with
distinctly recognizable features. Discrete attempts at improvement—changing the design
of some buildings, adding trees in the parking lots, hanging banners on the streetlights, or
putting bricks or flowers in the medians—are usually too small to change the overall
picture. To change how investors and users perceive and respond to the strip requires not
only a comprehensive reorganization of the type, placement, and orientation of
development, as discussed in Section 2.1, but also a corresponding reconfiguration of the
sidewalks, street furnishings, landscaping, and lane configurations that collectively shape
the form and character of the street space.
This section proposes a more integrated paradigm in which planning and operations for
the right-of-way give equal priority to all of the mobility functions of the street and to its
role in creating a setting that supports attractive, walkable development.19
2.2.1
DESIGN TO PROMOTE AND SUPPORT NEW DEVELOPMENT
2.2.1.1
Provide settings that work well with intended new forms of
development.
The size and character of the street has enormous influence over the quality of the built
environment. Successful real estate development is designed to respond to and reinforce
the speed, scale, sidewalk environment, and visual character of the street environments
they front. To restore value to older strip corridors, the restructured pattern of land use
should be paired with a capital improvement plan that redesigns the corridor’s right-ofway to create a setting that supports the desired types of new development.
A treeless corridor, for instance, makes ground-floor retail and residential uses less
attractive (Fig. 29), while continuous street tree planting increases the corridor’s appeal
and buffers pedestrians and residences from traffic (Fig. 30). On-street parking is also an
effective buffer between pedestrians and traffic while providing convenient parking or at
least the ―look‖ of convenient parking to shops and services.
19
Context-sensitive solutions (CSS, also referred to as context-sensitive design) use roadway
design to meet specific community objectives for development. In terms of corridor restructuring,
this means that the physical design of the right-of-way is configured to fit the character and design
of each corridor segment and center identified in the restructuring plan.
26
Figure 29. In the 1980s, East 14th Street (CA-185) in
San Leandro, California, was a conventional four-lane
strip corridor arterial that prioritized driving, with no
bicycle lanes and few pedestrian amenities. It reflected
poorly on the high-quality residential neighborhoods
just behind the corridor. Image: Freedman Tung &
Sasaki
Figure 30. Today, this segment of East 14th Street has been
restriped for three vehicle lanes and bicycle lanes in each
direction. A continuous tree planting between the sidewalk
and curb makes walking more comfortable and dramatically
increases the corridor’s appeal for mixed-use development.
This was a capital improvement recommended in the North
Area Specific Plan and Revitalization Manual, City of San
Leandro, California. Image: Freedman Tung & Sasaki
Traffic design controls such as design speed and sight distances should also be matched
to the desired corridor character. When re-engineering the street, the local government
should select geometric design characteristics such, as lane widths and turning radii, and
design controls to create a street that operates in the best way for its settings. This means
coordinating the street’s physical design and its operating speeds to make vehicles’
speeds match the desired types of activity along the street. For instance, where curbside
parking is desired (as is typically the case along most segments with fronting retail or
residential use), the design speed should not exceed 35 miles per hour.
2.2.1.2
Design public and private frontages as a single, cohesive
physical element.
With space along wide thoroughfares always at a premium, it is critical that the area
between the buildings and moving lanes of traffic be used effectively. This space is made
up of two zones one either side of the right-of-way line—the private frontage including
the ground level of the building façade and the design of any setback areas and the public
frontage including the sidewalk, parkway landscaping, and parking lanes (Fig. 31). It is
absolutely critical that the design of these two zones mutually reinforce each other by
working as a coherent visual and functional space. This is especially important along
wide thoroughfares which need to effectively buffer pedestrian activity and front
entrances from heavily trafficked segments of the corridor. Providing a planting strip
between the sidewalk and the curb that is generous and green, lined with street trees and
streetlights, and additionally buffered from the moving traffic by a lane of curbside
parking can be highly effective.
27
Creating desirable living environments
along strip corridors can be a challenge,
since residential development has not
always been perceived as compatible
with wide roads. Examples of corridor
housing poorly configured for arterial
road locations have created lasting
negative impressions for both investors
and prospective residents.
Inappropriately planned and designed
developments often present unattractive,
―fortified‖ buildings coupled with
barren streetscapes when they face the
road (Fig. 36), or they orient buildings
to literally turn their backs to the road
(Fig. 37). As a result, people generally
do not see corridors as livable
neighborhoods, and housing developers
do not often think of corridor properties
as good places for new investment.
Figure 31. An apartment building inserted onto a corridor
without compatibility with adjacent commercial uses, lacking
buffering to arterial traffic, and displaying an unappealing
ground-floor façade of parking garage grillwork. Image:
Essential design features for building
frontage. Scale, architectural
consistency (e.g., roof slope, window
size, etc.), and prominence of the
buildings’ front entries (including
protruding porticoes, porches, and
canopies as well as prominent front
Figure 32. In this example, continuous “backs” of attached
townhomes face onto an arterial corridor. With no front
doors) are important elements in
relating the building to the thoroughfare. doors, they create the impression of an impenetrable wall, not
a neighborhood. The continuous roof slope accentuates the
Buffering the residences’ private space
perception of a walled-off area. Image: Freedman Tung &
Sasaki
from the street is also critical. This
buffering is accomplished by mutually reinforcing design devices listed below. In the
most urban corridor segments, setbacks may be very small, and the front lawn may be
replaced with other buffering devices, such as raising the ground-level residences above
the sight lines of people on the sidewalk and/or the addition of porches or stoops to the
building frontage.
28
Buffering features on private property
include:
 Front stoops;
 Canopies and porches;
 Front yards;
 Frontage plants and trees;
 Low wall at the back of the
sidewalk (Fig. 33);
 Fence at the back of the sidewalk;
 Hedge at the back of the
sidewalk; and
 Grade elevation change at
frontage (Fig. 33).
Figure 33. Sidewalk and view of private frontage in San
Mateo, California. Layering of elements combine to create
meaningful buffering for both pedestrians (curbside
parking, planter strip, and street trees) and street-facing
residences (decorative landscaping, additional trees, low
wall, elevated grade change, stoop entrances, front
setback, and front porch fencing).
Buffering features within the public
right-of-way include:
 Public sidewalk of sufficient
width where two people can pass each other comfortably (i.e. five to six feet);
 A wide landscaped strip between the sidewalk and the curb with shade trees;
 Street lighting at both the roadway and pedestrian scales;
 On-street parking; and
 Bicycle lanes and transit stops.
Figure 34. “Mansion” homes on a grand residential avenue
in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The buildings collectively shape
the street space by having a uniform building setback and
street orientation, good massing proportion, a formal front
facing the street, a prominent front porch, the same roof type
and slope, and attractive details.
Figure 35. Rainier Vista, a new corridor housing
development along a light-rail line in Seattle, Washington,
uses a consistent set of features with variations—gable and
sloping roofs with common slope and orientation, window
types and sizes, and different cladding and color palettes.
The American precedent: the grand residential boulevard. The grand residential
boulevard (Fig. 34) is a historical precedent for creating attractive, comfortable homes on
busy thoroughfares. The appealing physical characteristics of the mansion home, coupled
with tree-lined streets and comfortable sidewalks, can be adapted to clustered homes of
various unit types and income levels (Fig. 35) along these segments.
29
2.2.1.3
Restore walking and street life to high-volume thoroughfares.
Street activity is critical to corridor
revitalization. Centers provide the
vibrant street life and continuous
activity that many suburban consumers
now prefer instead strip centers.20
Segments intended to include housing
development that faces the corridor
must be attractive and safe. Attractive
streetscapes bring pedestrians, and
having plenty of pedestrians and ―eyes
on the street‖ helps improve both
perceived and actual safety.
Figure 36. An example of a multilane arterial with a typical
six-foot sidewalk and no buffering other than the bicycle lane.
Pedestrians in such instances feel exposed to traffic, unsafe,
and uncomfortable. Image: Freedman Tung & Sasaki
Employment districts that straddle and
face the corridor need activity to
support the lunch spots, services, and
meeting.21 The centers and segments
are composed to produce activity—
they replace the low intensities and
monoculture of the strip with a mix of
land uses with a varied range of
intensity and synergy. They are
planned to allow the greatest possible
mix of housing types, offices, and shop
fronts to bring people together at
various times and for various
purposes.22
The safety and appeal of the
restructured corridor rely on the
generation of activity both within
centers and segments between them. In
addition to mixing uses and raising
intensities to foster activity, it is also critical that people can easily walk between centers
and segments, and that they do so frequently. They should also find it natural to walk, sit,
and meet along the corridor.
Figure 37. The addition of a planting strip with trees in
between a similar sidewalk and bicycle lane substantially
improves the comfort of the walking environment and the
character of the street. Image: Freedman Tung & Sasaki
20
See, for example, ―Lifestyle Centers Offer More Than Fresh Air,‖ Inland Valley Daily Bulletin,
January 9, 2009; or Greyfield Regional Mall Study, PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Congress for
the New Urbanism, 2001.
21
See Doug Henton, ibid. Also Richard Florida, ―How Cities Renew‖ in Monocle, July/August
2008.
22
Fifty years ago, Jane Jacobs pointed out that the mingling of different people for different purposes ―is
the only device that keeps streets safe.‖ William H. Whyte proved, with his research and time lapse
photography, that ―people go where they see people.‖
30
Retrofitting that creates a more comfortable pedestrian experience. Substantial buffering
makes a major difference in the quality of the walking environment on an arterial. At a
minimum, a consistent planting of curbside street trees can provide buffering between
moving traffic and the sidewalk (Figs. 36 and 37). But if these street trees are inconsistent,
too widely spaced, or relatively small, people will continue to see the corridor as traffic
dominated. If utilities or underground conditions do not allow for trees, other vertical
elements, such as a line of closely spaced decorative streetlights, can be substituted.
Figure 38. This right-of-way that was restructured to better
support the downtown and introduces trees into the parking
lane along the downtown segment (Whittier Boulevard
Improvements, City of Montebello, California). Image:
Figure 39. View of the existing four-lane downtown Second
Street (inset) and a digital rendering of the same street
segment restructured with landmark streetlight columns
inserted between curbside parking spaces. The scale of the
taller columns is in context with the high-rise buildings that
line the street (Downtown Phoenix Improvements, City of
Phoenix, Arizona). Image: Freedman Tung & Sasaki
Retrofitting along very constrained rights-of-way. Where additional right-of-way width to
add buffering is not readily available (for example where a narrow sidewalk is built right
up to a continuous line of existing buildings), certain streetscape design tradeoffs can
help to compensate. Allowing the pedestrian and vehicular spaces to overlap in the
parking lane can achieve multiple functions in the same limited space. Street trees may be
planted in planters between parked cars (Fig. 38). The tradeoff for removing a small
number of parking spaces is a less obstructed sidewalk, a wider pedestrian environment,
and a visually narrower driving environment—without the expense of relocating curbs
and drainage. This technique can be used with other vertical objects, such as streetlights
or architectural elements (Fig. 39).
Comprehensive retrofitting. The most effective way to integrate relatively high volumes
of traffic with vibrant streetside activity is to physically separate the conflicting traffic
functions of mobility and access. See ―The Multiway Boulevard‖ sidebar on the next
page for a complete description.
31
The Multiway Boulevard23
The multiway boulevard is a landscaped, multilane street type that was used in the pre-automobile era for
its grandeur but today has new applicability because it can bring pedestrians back to our wide
thoroughfares. Where communities want to combine relatively high volumes of traffic with significant
pedestrian activity, the multiway boulevard is probably the optimal configuration. The design framework
contains the same number of through-lanes in its center as any arterial, but adjacent tree-lined side medians
separate these center lanes from slow-moving side access lanes, typically with curbside parking. The lanes
on either side of the thoroughfare, closest to the buildings, are separated from the higher-speed traffic lanes
so that they feel like completely different street environments (Fig. 40). The configuration eliminates most
of the usual friction between through-traffic and access behavior (e.g., curbside parking, entering/exiting
driveways, passenger drop-off, etc.) and creates a pleasant setting for walking.
Sidewalks along the side access lanes are lined with buildings and shops with ground-level entrances facing
the street. The multiple rows of trees on sidewalks and side medians create excellent buffering between the
arterial traffic and the upper stories of buildings. This makes boulevard addresses desirable places for
upper-story workplaces, lodging, or residences (Fig. 41).
Within this framework, various designs and combinations of use can be accommodated along corridors.
Along very densely populated corridors, a corridor center development can straddle both sides of the
boulevard. The multiway boulevard results in a wide right-of-way between its two sides, but with the use of
the side and central medians as pedestrian refuges, crossing in stages is relatively comfortable (although
still a significant distance). The side access lane configuration can be applied in response to different
existing or intended combinations of use. For instance, in more suburban locations, a one-sided multiway
configuration can support a center located on one side.
Figure 40. Diagram of how a multiway boulevard
dramatically increases the proportion of pedestrianoriented space relative to vehicular space, making it
highly supportive of mixed uses with upper-story
residential and office spaces. Image: Freedman Tung &
Sasaki
Figure 41. View of Avenue Daumesnil, an existing
multiway boulevard in Paris, France. The two rows of
trees and the width of the sidewalk, parking lanes, access
lane, and side median provide very substantial buffering
for the upper-story residences and workplaces from the
arterial traffic. Image: Payton Chung
23
For a thorough and illustrated resource on the multiway boulevard see Jacobs, A; Macdonald,
E; and Rofe, Y., The Boulevard Book: History, Evolution, Design of Multiway Boulevards. MIT
Press, 2003.
32
Integrating parking and access with the boulevard. Like architecture and site design
characteristics, appropriate circulation and access features are critical elements of the
residential boulevard segment. An important design strategy is to have on-site parking
accessed from rear alleys or side streets, allowing uninterrupted and more appealing front
yards and sidewalks along the boulevard frontage. This key access management strategy
also provides a less conspicuous location for service activities.
2.2.1.4
Visually differentiate the new pattern of centers and segments.
Street design should deliberately
emphasize the differentiation,
functional needs, and special character
of each center and segment. Each
segment should have its own type of
uniform and closely spaced street trees
and streetlights, with landmarks (Fig.
42) or expressive landscaping between
segments. Capital improvement
investments should be designed to
produce an unfolding sequence of
boulevard experiences that benefits
wayfinding, city identity, and the
growing appeal of corridor properties.
Figure 42. A city gateway landmark feature on East 14th
Street at the border of the cities of Oakland and San Leandro
(East 14th Street Gateway and North Area Street
Improvements, City of San Leandro, California). Image:
33
2.2.2 COORDINATE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INVESTMENT TO ENHANCE
MOBILITY AND ACCESS
The strip is losing prominence as a retail venue, and its mobility function has also
degraded significantly. A revitalization plan uses each increment of private development
and public capital improvements not just to stimulate the new development, but also to
enhance overall mobility and accessibility. Achieving these goals often requires both
short-term capacity improvements and building a better transportation framework one
piece at a time. Communities should take advantage of opportunities to improve mobility
at a variety of scales by using the plan to orchestrate development site planning and
capital improvements, as well as to coordinate and align plans with regional agencies
charged with transportation planning. Strategies to enhance future mobility as part of the
corridor restructuring include:
2.2.2.1
Augment the street network.
Instigating the development of a fine-grained street network is essential not only to the
cultivation of street life, but also to creating alternate routes for trips within the local
district. New routes that are parallel to the arterial and connected to surrounding streets
improve local circulation and, in some cases, relieve arterial congestion ―hot spots‖ by
reducing the number of turns on and off the boulevard and reducing the number of
vehicle trips along it. Also, smaller blocks reduce travel distances for walking trips,
which encourages people to walk rather than drive.
2.2.2.2
Integrate street design with transit infrastructure planning.
As discussed above, the corridor restructuring framework will incrementally deliver a
land use pattern that can be served by public transit. Installing transit infrastructure along
the corridor will be easiest where the corridor is connecting to or serving major
destinations such as a regional downtown, a university, a civic center, or a sports arena.
Where it makes sense and as soon as possible, transit infrastructure should be installed in
anticipation of and as a stimulus for new mixed–use, high-density development in centers
and new medium-density development in segments.
In instances where transit infrastructure cannot be installed immediately—and there will
be many of these—design the corridor to prepare for an increasing commitment to transit.
Increasing commitment to transit means gradually changing lanes from mixed-flow
traffic (autos and transit together), to a mix of high-occupancy vehicles and transit, and
ultimately to dedicated transit-only lanes. Each incremental step makes transit run faster,
making it more appealing to riders. Thus, where there is only local bus service, design the
corridor to accommodate the transition from local bus to express bus and bus rapid transit
(BRT) and perhaps ultimately to fixed-rail transit, where appropriate. Where streetcars or
light rail are realistic at some point in the future, design the corridor to accommodate
future light-rail infrastructure (Figs. 43 and 44).
34
Figure 43. Corridor planned for future light rail: short-term improvements (compare with Figure 44). Image:
Figure 44. Corridor planned for future light rail: long-term improvements (compare with Figure 43) (Sprague &
Appleway Corridors Specific Plan, Spokane Valley, Washington). Image: Freedman Tung & Sasaki
At a minimum, corridor retrofits must provide transit riders with pedestrian space, transit
stops, waiting areas, and transfer points. Since transit riders must walk or wheel to get to
and from transit, and most will likely cross the major street, safe pedestrian and bicycle
access and safety along the corridor and adjacent streets is essential. In some cases,
existing shopping centers and destinations may choose to improve walkability and transit
access as an interim redevelopment strategy. This can include making better walkways
and direct, protected connections through parking lots and providing comfortable transit
shelters set back from the main road on private property. For major redevelopments,
owners are likely to see the advantage of planning for a major station or transfer center on
their property as part of their customer delivery system.
35
2.2.2.3
Guide site development planning to restore thoroughfare
capacity.
The commercial strip is almost always
studded with driveways (Fig. 45) and
often has a continuous, two-way, center
left-turn lane. Both the driveways and
the unsignalized left turn pockets create
many places where vehicles are turning
into the path of oncoming traffic, with
an accordingly high rate of related
accidents. The multiple turning points
also reduce thoroughfare capacity
because traffic must slow down when
vehicles turn onto and off of the arterial.
Replacing strip retail with non-retail
Figure 45. A five-lane strip corridor in northern New Jersey
uses along segments permits the closure
with small commercial uses and frequent driveway curb cuts,
of multiple driveways as well as the
each circled in red, accessed by a two-way center left-turn
lane. Image: Microsoft Virtual Earth
elimination of unsignalized left-turn
lanes, both of which substantially increase thoroughfare capacity. To ensure easy access
to adjoining properties while making corridor through-movement safer and more efficient,
corridor restructuring plans must take every opportunity to implement driveway
consolidation, side-street access to properties, use of rear alleys for access and loading,
appropriate signal controls and signage, and restriction and control of left-turn
movements.
36
3.
IMPLEMENTING CORRIDOR RESTRUCTURING
Section 2 provided the strategic direction that the restructured corridor must follow to
break out of the mold of the strip and incrementally re-emerge in a form that better
captures market value and projects a positive community identity. Implementing this
strategy will require the participation and support of city officials, planners and engineers,
stakeholders, and residents. It will require a reorientation in thinking about the corridor
and some of the practices involved in planning and designing it. And it will require the
adoption of new policy tools and programs that can effectively instigate the necessary
restructuring. This section addresses the challenges, collaborative processes, and policy
tools that are fundamental to successful implementation of the restructuring plan.
3.1
BARRIERS AND SOLUTIONS
Pioneering corridor revitalization projects undertaken by municipalities and counties thus
far have highlighted similar barriers to success that are specific to this project type. The
following are some of the most commonly encountered barriers and the lessons learned
thus far about overcoming them.
3.1.1 THE DIFFICULTY OF ENVISIONING SUCCESS
Corridor revitalization planning may be an unfamiliar endeavor for many participants.
For example, when local governments convene residents and stakeholders to consider
redesigning strips, many people simply envision more strip, usually with more attractive
landscaping, more coordinated monument signs or architecture, and perhaps some extra
turning lanes. As we have seen, this is not what the strip needs. The strip needs to be
gradually changed into something different, and perhaps the most critical ongoing job of
the corridor planning facilitators is to assist all participants in the planning process to
clearly envision and evaluate the desirability of a potentially very different future corridor.
Drawings, sketches, or computer simulations that can be readily understood by citizens
without architectural or planning backgrounds are critical to discussion and decision.
3.1.2 STAKEHOLDER OPPOSITION TO CHANGE
After 40 years of strip retail dominating suburban shopping, corridor re-planning efforts
may concern long-term property owners accustomed to retail strip development being the
best and often only source of value for their properties. To gain stakeholder support, the
corridor planning effort must be organized around a patient and open workshop process
that gives participants objective information and case studies so they can understand the
major shifts affecting their properties and decide for themselves. Many property owners
along strip corridors will have witnessed the changes in the strip’s fortunes over the years
and will want to learn about the causes of these changes and strategies that redirect
investment for everyone’s benefit. Property owners should hire a consultant to evaluate
the viability of residential development, and its potential property value compared to
retail development on segment-located properties. They will also want to see economic
studies that compare the retail demand for the corridor to the amount of property zoned
37
for retail use.24 This analysis helps determine how much more retail, if any, the corridor
can support. The community workshop process should also focus on residents’ concerns
of residents, particularly those in the neighborhoods immediately adjacent to the strip.
The public participation process is discussed further in the next section, ―Managing the
Planning Process.‖
3.1.3 VARIED POTENTIAL FOR CHANGE IN THE CORRIDOR
Although the forces driving strip restructuring are national, the degree to which
revitalization is pressing or even possible in the short term varies, not only between
corridors but often between portions of a single corridor. Depending on the condition of
various segments along any given strip, some segments may need a gradual transition,
whereas others may be ripe for dramatic near-term change. Still others will be relatively
stable, at least for the time being. Inventorying the conditions in place and checking them
against demand and investors’ intentions are important steps in the re-planning process
and will provide an essential basis for shaping shared expectations and priorities.
Appendix A contains detailed instructions for a useful existing conditions inventory.
Along all but the most dilapidated (or barely built) corridors, restructuring strategies and
implementation measures will need to be calibrated to make the most of existing value. In
some segments, long-time businesses and services may have a loyal customer base from
surrounding neighborhoods. Careful corridor redesign can integrate viable businesses
with phased-in redevelopment, improving mobility and access while enhancing the
corridor’s character. Where conditions are ripe for change and new investment, planning
tools may be employed relatively aggressively to instigate fairly dramatic restructuring in
the short term. Where the existing strip contains only a few opportunity sites among
stable existing development, a strategy to promote transition while maintaining the stable
development may be more appropriate. In segments where existing economic activity is
consistently strong and buildings well maintained, policies might be adopted to allow
long-term transition while continuing to accommodate existing development.
Determining how to apply these calibrated strategies in a single corridor (Fig. 46) is one
of the key tasks in developing a plan that builds on the strengths already in place and that
makes sense to stakeholders.
24
Several first-generation corridor restructuring plans that included comparative assessments of
the value of housing versus retail found housing to be more potentially lucrative than retail
development for segment-located properties. See, for example, Gruen Gruen + Associates, ―Likely
Highest and Best Uses for North Brentwood Boulevard,‖ November 9, 2004, prepared for the city
of Brentwood, California, as part of the Brentwood Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan project.
38
Figure 46. Segments of the corridor are grouped into restructure, transition, and preservation categories (Beach and
Edinger Corridors Specific Plan, City of Huntington Beach, California). Image: Freedman Tung & Sasaki
3.1.4 STREAMLING PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INVESTMENTS
This publication has emphasized how a healthy corridor integrates the thoroughfare
design with the configuration of land use and development that it serves. For example,
Section 2 emphasized the importance of designing the space between the buildings and
the moving traffic—the public and private frontages—as a single integrated unit.
However, the timing of public investments in capital improvements within the public
right-of-way rarely coincides with the installation of private improvements on the other
side of the right-of-way line. Plans for the former are typically prepared under the
auspices of municipal, county, or state public works departments, whereas the latter are
designed by the architects of each development in accordance with municipal standards.
Each of these groups has different objectives and priorities, which manifest in different
ways in the scale and organization of sidewalk areas and in the landscaping of building
setback areas. To successfully revitalize commercial corridors, the corridor planning team
and planning and public works department staff members must collaborate effectively to
define a cohesive design to which all parties will adhere as investments are made.
Successful projects typically address the priorities of multiple agencies, making them
eligible for funds from transportation, housing, community development, and
environmental agencies. Furthermore, significant corridor improvements can be
implemented as part of a privately funded redevelopment project—for example, creating
new road networks through former shopping center parking lots.
3.2
MANAGING THE CORRIDOR PLANNING PROCESS
The complexity of strip corridors invariably triggers the involvement of multiple agencies,
departments, business operators, and property owners. Residents and owners of
properties adjoining corridor parcels often also have a keen sense of ownership of the
corridor. Given all the interested parties and their many different priorities and mandates,
the management of an effective planning process is vital to success. The following
sections focus on practical issues that local governments may encounter as they plan for
and implement corridor revitalization.
39
3.2.1
THE CRITICAL ROLE OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT
As noted in Part One, corridor restructuring requires leadership by local government.
Local governments are uniquely equipped to leverage policy, planning, and investment
tools in support of corridor re-structuring. These tools permit local government—and
only local government—to play a variety of roles critical to corridor revitalization:
3.2.1.1
Convener of the public process.
The planning and implementation of corridor restructuring strategies requires support
from and action by many individuals and organizations from both the public and private
sectors. Local government is uniquely qualified to convene the many parties involved,
though some communities may have a strong nonprofit organization also suited to
bringing people together to focus on corridor development. The role of convener is a
continuing one, since interaction, support, and consistency of decision-making will be
needed throughout what is typically a lengthy implementation period. See Section
3.2.3—Orchestrating Community Participation.
3.2.1.2
Regulator of land use and development.
Potential investors look for ―certainty‖ in development codes and controls which can only
be established and enforced by the municipality through a clear land use and
development policy.
3.2.1.3
Sponsor of capital improvements.
The public right-of-way is owned and controlled by the public sector—the municipality,
the county, or the state. The critical importance of reconfiguring the public right-of-way
means that capital improvements have a big role in implementing the corridor
restructuring plan. While improvements may be funded and constructed by private
investors or by the government, it is the public agency’s responsibility to establish
standards for the right-of-way and to control and coordinate improvements.
3.2.1.4
Collaborator in other agencies’ decisions.
In most regions of the country, local governments are involved a wide range of activities
that are relevant to corridor restructuring but that occur at a larger geographic scale.
Many strip corridor rights-of-way are owned by the states and controlled by state
departments of transportation, which will coordinate redesign with municipal
governments but not with any private actors. Transit agencies, sewer authorities, and
regional transportation planning organizations are among the formal entities whose
decisions can aid or impede implementation of the restructuring plan. Some of these
entities are comprised of elected officials from local governments, giving the
municipality a direct say in creating a framework that supports corridor revitalization.
40
3.2.2
MANAGING INTERDEPARTMENTAL AND INTERDISCIPLINARY
COLLABORATION
Many local government departments will have to support preparation and implementation
of the restructuring plan. The departments of planning, economic development,
environment, and public works are invariably involved. Depending on the scope of the
plan and the local governmental structure, transit, redevelopment, housing, or parks
agencies may also be involved. Several communities found an interdepartmental ―core
team‖ to be a useful project management tool. The core team is a group of senior staff
that collaborates with the primary technical team throughout the project. Recommended
members are, as applicable, the community development director, the redevelopment
director, and the public works director, with a second person from each department as
well. For example, since traffic circulation is typically an important issue in any corridor
revitalization project, a traffic engineer would be a good second representative from the
public works department. Including the city manager as a key member of the core team is
also highly recommended.
The core team must actively participate in developing the plan’s concepts and contents.
Team members are responsible for coordinating with the rest of the staff in their
departments and communicating between the core team and the departments. It is
essential to the project’s continuity and the core team’s credibility with the rest of the
local government staff that the core team’s membership remains constant throughout the
project.
At key junctures in the development of the plan elements and outcomes, the core team
should present its recommendations for informal review and discussion by the city
council and its advisors on the planning commission and other boards. These study
sessions will involve municipal decision-makers in the discussion of the specific plan as
it is being developed, rather than waiting until the end. These meetings should be set up
as working sessions rather than as more formal public hearings. Preferably, they would
not be held in city council chambers, and there would be no formal adoptions. Such
sessions let council members and commissioners ask questions, make comments, and
express concerns before plan details are finalized. They ensure that decision-makers will
receive a plan that implements their vision for the corridor.
A final function of the core team is to lay the groundwork for community engagement
throughout the planning process. Like any effort that requires broad support from both
the community and the local government, the restructuring process needs champions—
individuals who are in leadership positions in the community and who are fully and
publicly committed to the restructuring effort.
3.2.3
ORCHESTRATING COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION
The planning process must be open to everyone in the community. This openness is
critical to a plan’s success, as community members will enthusiastically support only
plans that they understand and believe in. Public workshops must blend education with
meaningful participation in shaping the plan. Educational components must be engaging
41
presentations that show participants how properties can maximize their value while
creating a stronger local identity and better places to live, work, and play. Participatory
techniques must create venues through which even the most reluctant participants can
contribute their opinions and provide input. In addition to workshops, outreach is
essential, including low-tech but essential direct mail notices for workshops sent to all
business owners, residents, and property owners within and adjacent to the project area;
notices and articles in the local newspaper; information on the local government web site;
and a project web site that notifies people of public meetings and regularly posts news,
updates, and relevant documents.
Typically, two issues are of particular concern to public workshop participants: the
economic foundation and the traffic implications of the plan. The conceptual approach to
these topics is covered in Part Two of this publication. A successful workshop process
will integrate these topics in presentations to participants so that they can evaluate
potential futures for the corridor more comprehensively and with an open mind. The
process must also allow public and personal discussion and consideration to take place, as
well as opportunities for participants to join in as the planning process unfolds. The plan
and the process can gain substantial credibility from workshop participants who start out
opposed to the plan but, with participation in workshops and discussions, become plan
supporters.
3.3
THE “FORM-BASED” DEVELOPMENT CODE
The approach to strip corridor revitalization that is described throughout this publication
relies on the transformation of the physical structure of the corridor from monolithic strip
to a pattern of centers and segments. To orchestrate and to promote this essential
structural change, development regulations must undergo a parallel change in structure.
Instead of being organized by land use categories, they should be organized by center and
segment type, with regulations enforcing the necessary anatomy of each and with land
use being a component. To ensure coherent centers and segments with the qualities
discussed in Section 2, the new policies must provide a framework that addresses the
form and placement of buildings and the relationships between them for each type of
center and segment. The development code changes must be prepared in concert with
specifications for improvements to the public realm, including both existing and new
public rights-of-way and open spaces. This is the foundation of a ―form-based code,‖ or a
code that ―…envisions and encourages a certain physical outcome.‖25
3.3.1 DEVELOPMENT CODE ORGANIZATION
The conventional zoning categories of a typical municipal zoning code are organized by
use and density, which say little about physical outcomes. Historically, zoning
regulations were intended to eliminate conflicts between incompatible activities (such as
residences heavy industry) and secure the land value of higher-value uses. The results of
this system fall into two different categories. For areas zoned with a single use and
25
Duany, A., Sorlien, S., and Wright, W. Smart Code Version 9 and Manual. New Urban News
Publications, 2008.
42
density, such as housing subdivisions or business parks, conventional zoning typically
produced cohesive zones of use and building type that tended toward extreme uniformity
as the scale of real estate development escalates. For the few more mixed-use parts of
suburban cities—the downtowns and the strip corridors in which retail, office, medical,
government, and lodging uses are permitted—use-focused zoning has produced the
opposite: an essentially haphazard distribution of building types and site treatments that
fail to create a sense of place or coherent structure.
The key to the approach to restoring value to corridors discussed throughout this
publication is to establish a system that allows a mixture of an even wider spectrum of
use, but that delivers cohesive place making—and along with it market focus—as
envisioned for each of the centers and segments along the corridor. To do so, the code
should depart from the conventional practice of organizing development exclusively by
use and density. Instead, it should be organized by the intended city structure of center,
segment, and neighborhood (a segment is often the edge of a neighborhood). The
regulations define the compatible featuresbuilding orientation, frontage treatment,
disposition, use, heightthat provide each structural piece of the city with a coherent
character and function.
Depending on their location in the city and the region, some corridors (or portions of
corridors) will most appropriately be urban in character, whereas other corridors (or
portions of corridors) will most appropriately be more suburban or even rural. The key
determinant of how ―urban‖ development becomes is the combined effect of building
height, mass, and setback; site coverage; parking type and location; private and public
frontage treatment; the proportion of paved surface to planted ground cover; and the
formality or informality of the landscaping arrangement. The development code should
reinforce a regional continuum of urban to ruralthat is, within the urban-to-rural
transect (Fig. 47). The character and function of a district, center, or segment depends on
its role in the restructured corridor and its place in this continuum. Figures 48 through 51
illustrate examples of housing and neighborhood contexts, from a detached single-family
home with a porch, landscaped yard, and picket fence to an urban apartment building
with an entrance built up to the edge of the sidewalk.
Figure 47. The transect, a continuum of rural-to-urban development contexts, was first developed in the
1980s by Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk. Image: SmartCode version 9.
43
Figure 48. A detached single-family home
featuring a porch, a deep front-yard setback,
and a frontage picket fence. Image: Freedman
Tung & Sasaki
Figure 50. Urban townhomes with
a small setback and individual
stoop entrances along the
sidewalk. Image: Freedman Tung
& Sasaki
Figure 51. An urban apartment
building with no setback and a
shared lobby entrance built
along the edge of the sidewalk.
Image: Freedman Tung &
Sasaki
Figure 49. A grand boulevard duplex with a
moderate setback and stoops. Image:
3.3.2
REGULATING PLAN
A regulating plan bridges the gap between the goal-oriented language of the restructuring
plan and the details of the code’s standards and guidelines. The regulating plan, typically
a map of the entire corridor, establishes the boundaries of the corridor’s centers and
segments (Fig. 52) or ―place types.‖ Each center and segment has shared objectives and
will be regulated under a unified set of standards—in this respect, the regulating plan is
like a conventional zoning map. However, unlike a conventional zoning map, the
emphasis in the regulating plan is on distinguishing a development pattern that
establishes the identity of specific locations along the corridor.
Figure 52. An example of a corridor regulating plan (Beach and Edinger Corridors Specific Plan, City of Huntington
Beach, California). Image: Freedman Tung & Sasaki
44
3.3.3
REGULATING PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS FOR PRIVATE
DEVELOPMENT
The establishment of place types as an organizing principle highlights the variation in
physical characteristics desired in each location. The physical characteristics of
development that affect the character and form of a center or segment include the
building envelope (building height, length, setback, and massing), the relationship to the
street (building orientation and entrance treatment), parking configuration, landscaping
and open space, and signage. Addressing each physical characteristic through a separate
regulation means that each regulation is simpler, with brief text definitions supplemented
by technical diagrams that make the regulation easy to review and the intended physical
outcomes clear (Fig. 57).
Figure 57. A comparison between the physical characteristics of different corridor centers and segments (Beach and
Edinger Corridors Specific Plan, City of Huntington Beach, California). Image: Freedman Tung & Sasaki
45
Good design is part of a successful
formula for revitalization. Investors
may perceive mixed-use districts as
places whose sites have potentially
incompatible neighbors (Fig. 58).
Mixed-use districts pose greater risks in
comparison with controlled
environments such as shopping centers,
business parks, or housing subdivisions.
As a result, single-use districts typically
Figure 58. Without design regulation, mixed-use districts can
out-compete downtowns, corridors, and
result in incompatible development types, discouraging
investors. This example shows a single-family home with front
other mixed-use locations because they
and back yards, flanked on one side by a 3-story apartment
are more predictable for investors.
building atop partially sunken parking and on the other by a
However, community members and
commercial repair business with a front parking lot and
double-width curb cut. None of these buildings enhances the
local governments are becoming
value of its neighbors. Image: Freedman Tung & Sasaki
unsatisfied with the character of the
environments created under conventional zoning standards. Form-based codes emphasize
compatibility through regulations that control the physical characteristics of development.
They are highly illustrated documents that use different techniquesrenderings,
perspective sketches, and regulatory diagramsto communicate clearly and effectively
both regulations and intent. As a result, investors, regulators, and community members
can better understand the plan, and project proponents can move forward with confidence
that they understand the requirements for new development and the outcomes that will
result.
For example, typical strip commercial corridor developments feature:
1) Surrounding parking lots;
2) Large front setbacks; and
3) Entrances that face parking lots.
To change these physical characteristics, the code can:
1) Define parking types according to their physical form (e.g., front surface
parking lots, side surface parking lots, or rear surface parking lots);
2) Regulate a building’s orientation by determining where the building’s primary
entrances may be located; and
3) Regulate maximum setbacks and frontage characteristics.
3.3.4
ORIENTING USERS AND ADMINISTRATORS TO THE CODE
The assembly, review, and adoption of a user-friendly, form-based code can be a
challenge. A form-based code is a significant departure from conventional zoning
practice. Preparation, adoption, and implementation of form-based codes are major
innovations for most local planning departments. As such, form-based codes need to be
carefully and thoroughly introduced to citizens, decision-makers, and other stakeholders.
46
Until form-based codes become the norm, the planning process will need to include
dedicated orientation sessions on this new type of regulation. Staff education and training
before the code takes effect is particularly important, as staff are responsible for both
administering the code and introducing it to the public ―at the counter.‖ It is important to
make the code easy to understand and use; quick-reference regulation charts and
development code organization diagrams can help make the code more accessible.
3.4
THE RESTRUCTURING PLAN DOCUMENT
A successful restructuring plan enables the local government to effectively regulate,
sponsor, convene, and collaborate by orchestrating private and public investment along
the corridor. Such a plan must present the community’s vision for the evolution and
continued growth of the corridor. It must establish the primary means of regulating land
use and development. Finally, the plan should contain a program of planned actions and
investments that that will stimulate and complement private corridor investment. To
make the public- and private-sector roles clear, the plan document should be organized as
follows:
3.4.1
THE COMMUNITY VISION FOR THE RESTRUCTURED CORRIDOR
The plan should record a corridor revitalization strategy that illustrates the intended
future form and character of the corridor. It should also set forth an explicit roadmap for
realizing this future by specifying how public actions and private investment will realize
that vision. This section forms the basis for the development regulations and municipality
actions that are in the subsequent two sections of the plan.
3.4.2
DEVELOPMENT REGULATIONS
Existing zoning regulations along the corridor will be replaced with new development
regulations that should:

Make the corridor zoning more effective at guiding physical change in the
direction the community intends;

Streamline the development process by providing clear and comprehensive
instructions to developers and their architects; and

Provide the municipality with tools that are user-friendly, engage prospective
investors, and answer property owners’ questions.
3.4.3
MUNICIPALITY ACTIONS
The restructuring and ongoing revitalization of the corridor is supported by a program of
community actions and investments. Given the level of restructuring envisioned and the
many needs represented, this program should be implemented in phases according to the
availability of municipal resources—a point that should be made clear in the text of the
plan document. Complementing the development regulations, this section outlines the
strategic investment of limited community resources necessary to accelerate the
revitalization process and to add to the appeal and success of the corridor. It typically
includes:
47

A description of capital improvements and their phasing;

A financing plan;

Implementation actions and responsibilities;

A parking management program;

A transit and circulation improvements program; and

A utilities and infrastructure improvements plan.
Restructuring plans typically call for scores of changes over miles of strip. Capital
budgets can reach tens of millions of dollars, with plans for even more private investment
value. With an agenda of this scope, a pressing question is where to start. To prioritize
public action for plan implementation, the municipality should group corridor segments
into three categories reflecting the type and timing of expected change along the corridor
(Table 2).
Table 2
Group #
1
2
3
Focus of Change
Restructuring (high
vulnerability to change)
Transition (medium
vulnerability)
Preservation and
enhancement (stable and
consistent with restructuring)
Time Frame
for Change
Near-term initiation
(0-5 years)
Mid-term initiation
(5-10 years)
Not relevant
Near-Term
Implementation
Strategies
Capital improvements,
re-zoning
Re-zoning
None
Implementation
Priority
First
Second
Third
Based on this prioritizing, the municipality can promote change by being the first investor
in locations that have the highest potential for near-term change. Prioritizing must engage
the public, since corridor investments require full support from private and public
investors and organizations. Therefore, the prioritization of municipal actions should also
be guided by the goals and strategies outlined in the revitalization strategy section of the
plan.
48
4.
CONCLUSION
Arterial strip corridors are less than a century old in the United States, but they are now
omnipresent in every populated region from small towns to big cities. The once-focal
transportation and development roles they initially played in our communities have
changed dramatically with the completion of the interstate highway system and the
resulting transformations in Americans’ work, home, and leisure choices. The retail
industry has evolved with these changes to create development formats that no longer
demand long corridors of commercial properties. Because of this market change,
corridors have seen marked disinvestment, which has become a structural problem that is
not simply a result of boom and bust cycles. Strip corridors contribute to sprawling
development patterns that increasingly are defined by traffic congestion. Finally, most
corridors leave much to be desired as physical places that inspire community care and
pride.
Restructuring corridors can provide important benefits to the community beyond the
actual corridor, including new housing choices, convenience, transportation options, an
improved neighborhood image, and a distinctive community identity. Restructuring can
respond to market demands for more compact, livable, and vital places; economic
opportunities for property owners; and the implementation of smart growth strategies that
bring environmental and community benefits. But to make it happen, public leadership is
essential. Only the municipality can play the roles necessary to lead the community to
envision the future, coordinate and guide private investment, update development policies,
and implement the changes to right-of-way configuration and management.
Transforming corridors will require major interventions, along with creativity and
commitment in carrying them out. This publication has presented broad corridor
restructuring principles that should be tailored to the characteristics and challenges
unique to a particular corridor. Corridor restructuring should align with national and local
retail industry types and ―behaviors,‖ as well as with consumer demand for housing types
and industry preferences for workplace types. The development pattern of the corridor
should be organized into a pattern of centers and segments that is sustainable in terms of
economics, community activity, and resource use, while respecting the character of
surrounding neighborhoods and long-term viability of existing businesses. The
restructured corridor will have as its backbone a new kind of arterial—a boulevard
configured for multimodal movement and ―context-sensitive‖ design so that the right-ofway makes proper settings for development on abutting properties. To achieve success,
the corridor plan and its development codes should establish specific guidelines to create
predictability for investment.
Corridor restructuring is an emerging phenomenon in planning and development of our
21st-century communities. In comparison with the familiar downtown, the business park,
or the single-family home neighborhood, the vision of the restructured corridor may be
unfamiliar to many in the community, the private sector, and the local government.
Education will be the key in both visioning and implementation. The story should be told
visually—―before‖ and ―after‖ images, analytical diagrams, three-dimensional renderings,
49
illustrative master plans, development prototypes, guideline graphics, and similar images
will help stakeholders and investors visualize and understand what is needed. Such a
dialogue should also be done through a patient and open community planning process to
achieve consensus. Municipal staff members will also need focused education on how to
use the performance-oriented tools, such as form-based codes, that are the restructured
policy types that go hand-in-hand with the restructured place types they help create.
Although the work required may seem formidableand the process lengthythe results
can be worth it. Through patient collaboration, attention to design details, public and
private investment over time, and the community’s desire to change its future by
remaking a roadway, the strip can become both passage and place.
50
APPENDIX
THE EXISTING CONDITIONS INVENTORY
The preparation of the corridor restructuring plan begins with an assessment of the
physical, economic, social, and regulatory conditions in place at the start of the planning
process. A thorough inventory and careful documentation is essential to the development
of responsive strategies and policies to achieve community objectives. The existing
conditions inventory should be based on thorough fieldwork, maps, and aerial imagery.
To facilitate concentrated study as well as discussion with project participants and
stakeholders, a thorough photographic record should be compiled, including aerial photos
of the corridor and its surroundings, as well as eye-level photos of all corridor-facing
development. For very long corridors, video can provide a convenient record of
conditions that can be consulted repeatedly as part of the process of developing
responsive planning concepts. Technical reports, base maps, or studies providing
information on one or more aspects of the corridor’s conditions may need to be prepared
if up-to-date data are unavailable.
The inventory should focus on aspects of the corridor that are likely to have practical
value to the planning process. It identifies and displays features and patterns of
development that the plan can build upon to enhance vitality and identity, as well as
patterns and features that may ultimately need to be replaced with new investment of
another type. Communities that have conducted successful corridor restructuring efforts
have made particularly good use of maps and technical studies focused on the following
features of existing commercial strip corridors:
1. Pattern of existing development.
2. Local and regional context.
3. Economic and market conditions.
4. Vulnerability to change.
5. Land use and development policy.
6. Mobility, access, and connectivity.
7. Street design.
8. Environmental/ecological factors.
9. Design context: character and identity.
10. Other existing conditions requiring attention.
However, due to the wide variation in corridor and contextual characteristics, corridor
revitalization planning teams must pay close attention to the unique characteristics of the
particular corridor under study to identify any additional aspects that merit mapping or
technical reports.
51
1. Pattern of Existing Development
The pattern of existing development along the stripthat is, what makes the strip a
―strip‖is the product of a layered composition of four essential features: parcels,
buildings, land uses, and blocks.

The Parcel Map reveals whether properties are shallow or deep and how properties
of various sizes are distributed along the corridor. In many cases, this map will reveal
significant constraints to new investment or significant redevelopment potential.

Preparation of a Building Footprint Map (Fig. A1), which outlines the edges of all
existing building plans and colors them in a solid single color, makes visible the way
that buildings relate to the street corridor—with consistency or irregularity.
Figure A1. Example of a Corridor Building Footprint Map (Sprague/Appleway Corridors Subarea Plan, City of
Spokane Valley, Washington). Image: Freedman Tung & Sasaki

Ground-Floor Uses (Fig. A2) should be mapped within the building footprint
outlines and color coded so that patterns of use can be easily detected. In most
suburban locations, mapping ground-floor uses will suffice because almost all of the
buildings are single story. But in locations with a significant number of multistory
buildings, a map of Above-Ground-Floor Uses should also be prepared, with the
number of levels indicated next to each building outline. It is very important that this
map not be mistaken for a land use map in which parcels are color-coded by existing
use, because that would mask the difference between a tiny building on a large site
(very common on strips) and a large building with the same use on a large site.
52
Figure A2. Example of a Map of Ground-Floor Land Uses on Building Footprints with a detailed color-coded legend
of land uses (Sprague/Appleway Corridors Subarea Plan, City of Spokane Valley, Washington). Image: Freedman
Tung & Sasaki

A Streets and Blocks Pattern Map (Fig. A3) with blocks colored in a single solid
color makes visible the frequency of street connections, the size and shape of blocks,
and the degree to which the scale of development accommodates walking and
bicycling.
53
Figure A3. Example of a Streets and Blocks Pattern Map (Sprague/Appleway Corridors Subarea Plan, City of Spokane
Valley, Washington). Image: Freedman Tung & Sasaki

Other types of maps can aid in analyzing and discussing specialized patterns of
existing development that may be important to illustrate for certain corridors, such as
a Map of Auto-Serving Surfaces (Fig. A4).
Figure A4. Example of an Auto-Serving Surfaces Map (Whittier Boulevard Specific Plan, City of Whittier, California).
2. Local and Regional Context
From motorists’ vantage point, the strip appears to be a singular and unchanging feature,
but of course the long strip also traverses a variety of neighborhoods, whose residents see
54
it as part of their district. To understand the role of the corridor in the community as a
whole, it is useful to begin the inventory of existing conditions by preparing a map of the
residential neighborhoods, downtown(s), business parks, auto row(s), industrial districts,
recreation zones, and natural preserves edged or bisected by the strip corridor (Fig. A5).
This aspect of the inventory becomes especially important for portions of the corridor
that require planned re-structuring. The local context map will draw attention to
opportunities to create new value in older portions of the corridor by showing potential
investors the values already present in contiguous districts.
Figure A5. Example of a local context diagram (Whittier Boulevard Specific Plan, City of Whittier, California). Image:
For corridors that do or might feature major shopping destinations, the inventory should
include a map of equivalent shopping destinations within a 5-, 10-, and 20-minute drive.
It should also depict the locations of regional thoroughfares and interchanges. Civic or
cultural destinations within the likely trade area should also be identified and mapped.
3. Economic and Market Conditions
Retail Performance Survey. Since the strip is first and foremost a creature of the retail
industry, and since its destabilization is caused by changes in that industry’s practices, it
is critical that the economic performance of the strip be evaluated to identify where and
how these changes have—and have not—affected the fortunes of businesses along the
corridor. If up-to-date data are unavailable, the corridor revitalization effort requires an
economics study that surveys the performance of existing retail and service venues based
55
on taxable sales, property tax data, and other financial records from businesses along the
corridor. In addition, the study should provide an analysis of rental rates and property
values, as well as an inventory of broader trends—occupancy and vacancy rates,
identification of portions of the corridor that have seen recent investment and portions
that have seen little or no investment, and trends in rental or land purchase prices.
Real Estate Market Analysis. Changes in retail industry formats are a manifestation of
market forces brought about by demographic, environmental, and cultural change. These
factors are now combining with volatility in the financial industry (and in family
spending habits) upon which the real estate industry depends. This will likely mean that
the real estate product configurations that are in vogue at any given time can probably be
expected to continue to evolve more rapidly than they had during earlier decades.
Successful corridor revitalization planning will need to kick-start revitalization with
short-term strategies that are based on an up-to-date understanding of market demand. If
recent data are unavailable, the existing conditions inventory phase should begin with the
preparation of an up-to-date market assessment.
The practical focus of the market study should be to provide market-based conclusions
and recommendations with respect to types of real estate development products that have
the greatest potential for success in the study area. The market study should evaluate the
trade area demographics to provide a realistic picture of likely short- and long-term
commercial and mixed-use potential. It should identify strengths and weaknesses of the
corridor with respect to the most state-of-the-art commercial/retail and mixed-use
industry trends. Key questions to be answered include: How much retail can realistically
be supported along the corridor, and according to what kinds of retail formats? How does
that amount, in current formats, compare to the available property along the corridor that
is presently in retail use or zoned exclusively for commercial uses? Are there any special
regional, communitywide, or local market niches that are underserved?
The economic analysis should also provide a ―highest and best use‖ assessment of the
potential value of properties that compares the potential property value for retail versus
housing or office development. This analysis should separate out crossroads properties
from the properties in between the primary crossroad locations. The potential to attract
such investment should be studied by extending the market assessment beyond retail to
cover current demand for residential, office, light industrial, entertainment, lodging, and
institutional space. Potential market niches based on assets already in place should be
explored. For example, the presence of a hospital would suggest some focus on the
market for additional medical services.
4. Vulnerability to Change
A map of the pattern of ―vulnerability to change‖ along the corridor is key to determining
what properties (and portions of the corridor) have a higher potential for change—and
thus will be the more likely locations for strategic revitalization measures (Fig. A6).
Conversely, this mapping will also show where change will be unlikely or difficult to
achieve. A thorough Vulnerability to Change analysis will be based on field observation
and consultation with knowledgeable municipality or agency staff and checked against
56
economic data on existing properties if available. At a minimum, a Vulnerability to
Change analysis evaluates to what degree the existing conditions and improvements on a
property (e.g., buildings, paved areas, other improvements) would be likely to impede
redevelopment or substantial renovation. An undeveloped or vacant site would be
considered highly vulnerable to change; a site featuring an occupied, but poorly
maintained, single-story older building with a surface parking lot may have moderate
vulnerability to change; and a site with new, occupied, and well-maintained multistory
buildings would be considered not vulnerable to change. To produce a useful strategic
planning tool, it is sufficient to classify sites as ―high,‖ ―moderate,‖ ―low,‖ or ―no‖
apparent vulnerability to change.
Figure A6. Diagram map of “Vulnerability to Change” of parcels along the Beaverton/Hillsdale and Canyon Road
corridors (Portland Metro 2040 Corridors & Centers Project, Portland METRO, Portland, Oregon). Image:
5. Land Use and Development Policy
Land use and development regulations are typically among the most powerful
determinants of the form of development along the strip. Existing zoning regulations and
other policies conditioning land uses, setbacks, building heights, densities, parking supply
and location, and other features of physical development should be inventoried (Fig. A7).
57
Figure A7. Example of a diagram map highlighting the existing zoning on a corridor (Whittier Boulevard Corridor
Development Code, City of Montebello, California). Image: Freedman Tung & Sasaki
6. Mobility, Access, and Connectivity
The relative success or failure of the corridor’s dual role—to provide both throughcapacity for commuters and access to commercial ventures along the thoroughfare—must
be carefully understood and evaluated. On the mobility side, it is important to answer
such questions as: What roles does the corridor play in regional and local trips? Does the
roadway fall under the jurisdiction of the state, the city, or the county? What are the
major commute movements? How is traffic performing throughout the day? How do
pedestrians and bicyclists experience the strip? Are the strip and its side streets easy to
cross on foot? Are there safety or congestion issues that need attention? What is the
present and planned role of transit on the corridor, and what is the role of the corridor in
the regional transit network?
In addition to providing a clear picture of existing and planning circulation, the existing
conditions phase must include an up-to-date assessment of the corridor’s capacity to
accommodate existing land uses and intensities and how much, if any, residual capacity
remains to accommodate additional use and intensity along the corridor. An analysis of
the level of connectivity and range of alternate routes provided (or not provided) by the
structure of blocks and streets in the study area is also a critical feature of the existing
conditions inventory. The quantitative representation of these aspects may need to be
graphically mapped by a transportation planning or engineering member of the team.
7. Street Design
Plan and section drawings should be prepared to illustrate typical through-lane and turnlane configurations, the width between curbs, frequency of crosswalks, presence of
medians, sidewalk width, and the typical positioning of any recurring landscaping or
street furniture. Eye-level photographs that capture the character of the thoroughfare from
motorist and pedestrian vantage points are especially useful for community discussion
sessions. A cross-section depicting the location of all features along a typical line running
perpendicular to the centerline of the corridor—that is, from building to building across
the corridor—should be prepared for each existing corridor configuration. The diagram
will make it easier to study the spatial proportions and recurring features of the corridor
streetscape and is especially important because it illustrates how the limited space of the
corridor is apportioned to moving cars, parking, people on foot or bicycle, and amenities.
58
8. Environmental/Ecological Factors
Although strips look very much the same, the natural ecosystems within which they are
located vary immensely. Existing conditions inventories must be tailored to respond to
these different conditions. Understanding how development on the corridor affects local
water resources, for example, is an essential part of the existing conditions inventory.
Since strip surfaces are dominated by pavement which increase stormwater runoff from
the development, a map of impermeable surfaces (which can be derived from the map of
Auto-Serving Surfaces described under ―Pattern of Existing Development‖) should be a
standard part of the inventory. For emerging corridors in newly developing areas, the
study should also include the relationship of the existing and potential corridor
development to wildlife habitat zones, agricultural preserves, and other open space.
In addition to these issues, there may be more site-specific environmental factors that
could have significant effects on development potential. Contaminated sites, and sites
with special regulatory restrictions, such as special habitat zones, must be recorded on
separate maps.
9. Design Context: Character and Identity
A frequent complaint leveled at strip corridors banal and ―placeless.‖ Corridor
restructuring is an opportunity for communities to make sure that the strip’s buildings and
streetscapes present a flattering and memorable image. To provide a basis for future
design, this phase can include a survey of the physical elements of the corridor and the
community that epitomize the community’s most distinctive character (Fig. A8).
Figure A8. Example of a design context matrix of architectural and place-character photos (Downtown Revitalization
Program and Precise Plan, City of Cathedral City, California). Image: Freedman Tung & Sasaki
59
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Restructuring the Commercial Strip

Transcription

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